xml::validwriter(3)

NAME

XML::ValidWriter - DOCTYPE driven valid XML output

SYNOPSIS

## As a normal perl object:
$writer = XML::ValidWriter->new(
   DOCTYPE => $xml_doc_type,
   OUTPUT => H
) ;
$writer->startTag( 'b1' ) ;
$writer->startTag( 'c2' ) ;
$writer->end ;
## Writing to a scalar:
$writer = XML::ValidWriter->new(
   DOCTYPE => $xml_doc_type,
   OUTPUT => uf
) ;
## Or, in scripting mode:
use  XML::Doctype          NAME  =>  a,  SYSTEM_ID   =>
'a.dtd' ;
use XML::ValidWriter qw( :all :dtd_tags ) ;
b1 ;                # Emits <a><b1>
c2( attr=>"val" ) ; # Emits </b1><b2><c2 attr="val">
endAllTags ;        # Emits </c2></b2></a>
## If you've got an XML::Doctype object handy:
use  XML::ValidWriter qw( :dtd_tags ), DOCTYPE => $doctype ;
## If you've saved a preparsed DTD as a perl module
use FooML::Doctype::v1_0001 ;
use XML::ValidWriter qw( :dtd_tags ) ;
#
# This all assumes that the DTD contains:
#
#   <!ELEMENT a ( b1, b2?, b3* ) >
#      <!ATTLIST   a aa1 CDATA       #REQUIRED >
#   <!ELEMENT b1 ( c1 ) >
#   <!ELEMENT b2 ( c2 ) >
#

STATUS

Alpha. Use and patch, don't depend on things not changing
drastically.

Many methods supplied by XML::Writer are not yet supplied
here.

DESCRIPTION

This module uses the DTD contained in an XML::Doctype to
enable compile- and run-time checks of XML output valid
ity. It also provides methods and functions named after
the elements mentioned in the DTD. If an XML::ValidWriter
uses a DTD that mentions the element type TABLE, that
instance will provide the methods
$writer->TABLE( $content, ...attrs... ) ;
$writer->start_TABLE( ...attrs... ) ;
$writer->end_TABLE() ;
$writer->empty_TABLE( ...attrs... ) ;
. These are created for undeclared elements--those ele
ments not explicitly declared with an <!ELEMENT ..> decla
ration--as well. If an element type name conflicts with a
method, it will not override the internal method.
When an XML::Doctype is parsed, the name of the doctype
defines the root node of the document. This name can be
changed, though, see XML::Doctype for details.
In addition to the object-oriented API, a function API is
also provided. This allows you to import most of the
methods of XML::ValidWriter as functions using standard
import specifications:

use XML::ValidWriter qw( :all ) ; ## Could list func
tion names instead
":all" does not import the functions named after elements
mentioned in the DTD, you need to import those tags using
":dtd_tags":

use XML::Doctype NAME => 'foo', SYSTEM_ID =>
'fooml.dtd' ;
use XML::ValidWriter qw( :all :dtd_tags ) ;
or

BEGIN {
$doctype = XML::Doctype->new( ... ) ;
}
use XML::ValidWriter DOCTYPE => $doctype, qw( :all
:dtd_tags ) ;
XML::Writer API compatibility
Much of the interface is patterned after XML::Writer so
that it can possibly be used as a drop-in replacement. It
will take awhile before this module emulates enough of
XML::Writer to be a drop-in replacement in situations
where the more advanced XML::Writer methods are used. If
you find you need a method not suported here, write it and
send it in!
This was not derived from XML::Writer because XML::Writer
does not expose it's stack. Even if it did, it's might be
difficult to store enough state in it's stack.
Unlike XML::Writer, this does not call in all of the IO::*
family, and method dispatch should be faster. DTD-spe
cific methods are also supported (see "AUTOLOAD").
Quick and Easy Unix Filter Apps
For quick applications that provide Unix filter applica
tion functionality, XML::ValidWriter and XML::Doctype
cooperate to allow you to
1 Parse a DTD at compile-time and set that as the
default DTD for the current package. This is done
using the

use XML::Doctype NAME => 'FooML, SYSTEM_ID =>
'fooml.dtd' ;
syntax.
2 Define and export a set of functions corresponding to
start and end tags for all declared and undeclared
ELEMENTs in the DTD. This is done by using the
":dtd_tags" export symbol like so:

use XML::Doctype NAME => 'FooML, SYSTEM_ID =>
'fooml.dtd' ;
use XML::ValidWriter qw(:dtd_tags) ;
If the elements a, b_c, and d-e are referred to in the
DTD, the following functions will be exported:

a() end_a() # like startTag( 'a', ...
) and endTag( 'a' )
b_c() end_b_c()
d_e() end_d_e() {'d-e'}() {'end_d
e'}()
These functions emit only tags, unlike the similar
functions found in CGI.pm and XML::Generator, which
also allow you to pass content in as parameters.
See below for details on conflict resolution in the
mapping of entity names containing /W/ to Perl sub
routine names.
If the elements declared in the DTD might conflict
with functions in your package namespace, simple put
them in some safe namespace:

package FooML ;
use XML::Doctype NAME => 'FooML', SYSTEM_ID
=> 'fooml.dtd' ;
use XML::ValidWriter qw(:dtd_tags) ;
package Whatever ;
The advantage of importing these subroutine names is
that perl can then detect use of unknown tags at com
pile time.
If you don't want to use the default DTD, use the
"-dtd" option:

BEGIN { $dtd = XML::Doctype->new( .... ) }
use XML::ValidWriter qw(:dtd_tags), -dtd => td ;
3 Use the default DTD to validate emitted XML. start_
Tag() and endTag() will check the tag being emitted against the list of currently open tags and either
emit a minimal set of missing end and start tags nec
essary to achieve document validity or produce errors
or warnings.
Since the functions created by the ":dtd_tags" export
symbol are wrappers around startTag() and endTag(), they provide this functionality as well.
So, if you have a DTD like

<!ELEMENT a ( b1, b2?, b3* ) >

<!ATTLIST a aa1 CDATA #REQUIRED >
<!ELEMENT b1 ( c1 ) >
<!ELEMENT b2 ( c2 ) >
<!ELEMENT b3 ( c3 ) >
you can do this:

use XML::Doctype NAME => 'a', SYSTEM_ID =>
'a.dtd' ;
use XML::ValidWriter ':dtd_tags' ;
getDoctype->element_decl('a')->attdef('aa1')->de
fault_on_write('foo') ;
a ;
b1 ;
c1 ;
end_c1 ;
end_b1 ;
b3 ;
c3( -attr => val ) ;
end_c3 ;
end_b3 ;
end_a ;
and emit a document like

<a aa1="foo">
<b1>
<c1 />
</b1>
<b3>
<c3 attr => "val" />
</b3>
</a>
.

OUTPUT OPTIMIZATION

XML is a very simple langauge and does not offer a lot of
room for optimization. As the spec says "Terseness in XML
markup is of minimal importance." XML::ValidWriter does
optimize the following on output:

"<a...></a>" becomes '<a... />'

Spurious emissions of "]]><![CDATA[" are supressed.

XML::ValidWriter chooses whether or not to use a
<![CDATA[...]]> section or simply escape '<' and '&'. If
you are emitting content for an element in multiple calls
to "characters", the first call decides whether or not to
use CDATA, so it's to your advantage to emit as much in
the first call as possible. You can do
characters( @lots_of_segments ) ;
if it helps.

METHODS AND FUNCTIONS

All of the routines in this module can be called as either
functions or methods unless otherwise noted.

To call these routines as functions use either the DOCTYPE
or :dtd_tags options in the parameters to the use state
ment:
use XML::ValidWriter DOCTYPE => XML::Doctype->new( ...
) ;
use XML::ValidWriter qw( :dtd_tags ) ;
This associates an XML::ValidWriter and an XML::Doctype
with the package. These are used by the routines when
called as functions.
new
$writer = XML::ValidWriter->new( DTD => $dtd, OUT
PUT => H ) ;
Creates an XML::ValidWriter.
The value passed for OUTPUT may be:
a SCALAR ref
if you want to direct output to append to a
scalar. This scalar is truncated whenever the
XML::ValidWriter object is reset() or DESTROY()ed
a file handle glob ref or a reference to an IO object
XML::ValidWriter does not load IO. This is the
only mode compatible with XML::Writer.
a file name
A simple scalar is taken to be a filename to be
created or truncated and emitted to. This file
will be closed when the XML::ValidWriter object is
reset or deatroyed.
NOTE: if you leave OUTPUT undefined, then the cur
rently select()ed output is used at each emission (ie calling select() can alter the destination
mid-stream). This eases writing command line filter
applications, the select() interaction is uninten
tional, and please don't depend on it. I reserve the
right to cache the select()ed filehandle at creation time or at time of first emission at some point in the
future.
import
Can't think of why you'd call this method directly, it
gets called when you use this module:

use XML::ValidWriter qw( :all ) ;
In addition to the normal functionality of exporting
functions like startTag() and endTag(), XML::Valid Writer's import() can create functions corresponding to all elements in a DTD. This is done using the spe
cial ":dtd_tags" export symbol. For example,

use XML::Doctype NAME => 'FooML', SYSTEM_ID =>
'fooml.dtd' ;
use XML::ValidWriter qw( :dtd_tags ) ;
where fooml.dtd referse to a tag type of 'blurb'
causes these functions to be imported:

blurb() # calls defaultWriter->startTag(
'blurb', @_ ) ;
blurb_element() # calls defaultWriter->dataElement(
'blurb', @_ ) ;
empty_blurb() # calls defaultWriter->emptyTag(
'blurb', @_ ) ;
end_blurb() # calls defaultWriter->endTag(
'blurb' ) ;
The range of characters for element types is much
larger than the range of characters for bareword perl
subroutine names, which are limited to [a-zA-Z0-9_].
In this case, XML::ValidWriter will export an oddly
named function that you can use a symbolic reference
to call (you will need "no strict 'refs' ;" if you are
doing a "use strict ;"):

&{"space-1999:moonbase"}( ...attributes ... ) ;
. XML::ValidWriter will also try to fold the name in
to bareword space by converting /W/ symbols to '_'.
If the resulting function name,

space_1999_moonbase( ...attributes... ) ;
has not been generated and is not the name of an ele
ment type, then it will also be exported.
If you are using a DTD that might introduce function
names that conflict with existing ones, simple export
them in to their own namespace:

package ML ;
use XML::Doctype NAME => 'foo', SYSTEM_ID =>
'fooml.dtd' ;
use XML::ValidWriter qw( :dtd_tags ) ;
package main ;
use XML::ValidWriter qw( :all ) ;
ML::foo ;
ML::c2 ;
ML::c1 ;
ML::end_a ;
I gave serious thought to converting ':' in element
names to '::' in function declarations, which might
work well in the functions-in-their-own- namespace
case, but not in the default case, since Perl does not
(yet) have relative namespaces. Another alternative is
to allow a mapping of XML namespaces to Perl names
paces to be done.
characters
characters( "escaped text", "& more" ) ;
$writer->characters( "escaped text", "& more" ) ;
Emits character data. Character data will be escaped
before output, by either transforming '<' and '&' to
&lt; and &amp;, or by enclosing in a
'"<![CDATA[...]]>"' bracket, depending on which will
be more human-readable, according to the module.
dataElement
$writer->dataElement( $tag ) ;
$writer->dataElement( $tag, $content ) ;
$writer->dataElement( $tag, $content, attr1 =>
$val1, ... ) ;
dataElement( $tag ) ;
dataElement( $tag, $content ) ;
dataElement( $tag, $content, attr1 => $val1, ... )
;
Does the equivalent to

## Split the optional args in to attributes and el
ements arrays.
$writer->startTag( $tag, @attributes ) ;
$writer->characters( $content ) ;
$writer->endTag( $tag ) ;
This function is exportable as dataElement(), and is also exported for each element 'foo' found in the DTD
as foo().
defaultWriter
$writer = defaultWriter ; ## Not a method!
$writer = defaultWriter( 'Foo::Bar' ) ;
Returns the default XML::ValidWriter for the given
package, or the current package if none is specified.
This is useful for getting at methods like "reset"
that are not also functions.
Croaks if no default writer has been defined (see
"import").
doctype
# Using the writer's associated DTD:
doctype ;
# Ignoring the writer's associated DTD:
doctype( $type ) ;
doctype( $type, undef, $system ) ;
doctype( $type, $public, $system ) ;
$writer->doctype ;
...etc
See "internalDoctype" to emit the entire DTD in the
document.
This checks to make sure that no doctype or elements
have been emitted.
A warning is emitted if standalone="yes" was specified
in the <?xml..?> declaration and a system id is speci
fied. This is extremely likely to be an error. If
you need to silence the warning, write me (see below).
Passing '' or '0' (zero) as a $public_id or as a $sys
tem_id also generates a warning, as these are
extremely likely to be errors.
emptyTag
emptyTag( $tag[, attr1 => $val1... ] ) ;
$writer->emptyTag( $tag[, attr1 => $val1... ] ) ;
Emits an empty tag like '<foo />'. The extra space is
for compatibility with XHTML.
endTag
endTag ;
endTag( 'a' ) ;
$writer->endTag ;
$writer->endTag( 'a' ) ;
Prints one or more end tags. The tag name is optional
and defaults to the most recently emitted start tag if
not present.
This will emit as many close tags as necessary to
close the supplied tag name, or will emit an error if
the tag name specified is not open in the output docu
ment.
end
$writer->end ; # Not a function!!
Emits all necessary end tags to close the document.
Available as a method only, since 'end' is a little to
generic to be exported as a function name, IMHO. See
'endAllTags' for the plain function equivalent func
tion.
endAllTags
endAllTags ;
$writer->endAllTags ;
A plain function that emits all necessart end tags to
close the document. Corresponds to the method "end",
but is exportable as a function/
exportDTDTags
$writer->exportDTDTags() ;
$writer->exportDTDTags( $to_pkg ) ;
Exports the tags found in the DTD to the caller's
namespace.
getDataMode
$m = getDataMode ;
$m = $writer->getDataMode ;
Returns TRUE if the writer is in DATA_MODE.
getDoctype
$dtd = getDoctype ;
$dtd = $writer->getDoctype ;
This is used to get the writer's XML::Doctype object.
getOutput
$fh = getOutput ;
$fh = $writer->getOutput ;
Gets the filehandle an XML::ValidWriter sends output
to.
rawCharacters
rawCharacters( "<unescaped text>", "& more text" )
;
$writer->rawCharacters( "<unescaped text>", "& more
text" ) ;
This allows you to emit raw text without any escape
processing. The text is not examined for tags, so you
can invalidate your document and even corrupt it's
well-formedness.
reset
$writer->reset ; # Not a function!
Resets a writer to be initialized, but not have emit
ted anything.
This is useful if you need to abort output, but want
to reuse the XML::ValidWriter.
setDataMode
setDataMode( 1 ) ;
$writer->setDataMode( 1 ) ;
Enable or disable data mode.
setDoctype
setDoctype $doctype ;
$writer->setDoctype( $doctype ) ;
This is used to set the doctype object.
select_xml
select_xml OUTHANDLE ; # Nnot a method!!
Selects a filehandle to send the XML output to when
not using the object oriented interface. This is
similar to perl's builtin select, but only affects
startTag and endTag functions, (not methods).
This is only needed if you want to interleave output
to the selected output files (usually STDOUT, see
"select" in perlfunc and to an XML file on another
filehandle.
If you want to redirect all output (yours and
XML::Writer's) to the same file, just use Perl's
built-in select(), since startTag and endTag emit to the currently selected filehandle by default.
Like select, this returns the old value.
setOutput
setOutput( H ) ;
$writer->setOutput( H ) ;
Sets the filehandle an XML::ValidWriter sends output
to.
startTag
startTag( 'a', attr => val ) ; # use default
XML::ValidWriter for
# current package.
$writer->startTag( 'a', attr => val ) ;
Emits a named start tag with optional attributes. If
the named tag cannot be a child of the most recently
started tag, then any tags that need to be opened
between that one and the named tag are opened.
If the named tag cannot be enclosed within the most
recently opened tag, no matter how deep, then start_
Tag() tries to end as few started tags as necessary to
allow the named tag to be emitted within a tag already
on the stack.
This warns (once) if no <?xml?> declaration has been
emitted. It does not check to see if a <!DOCTYPE...>
has been emitted. It dies if an attempt is made to
emit a second root element.
xmlDecl([[$encoding][, $standalone])
xmlDecl ;
xmlDecl( "UTF-8" ) ;
xmlDecl( "UTF-8", "yes" ) ;
$writer->xmlDecl( ... ) ;
Emits an XML declaration. Must be called before any
of the other output routines.
If $encoding is not defined, it is not output. This
is slightly different than XML::Writer, which outputs
'UTF-8' if you pass in undef, 0, or ''.
If $encoding is '' or 0, then it is output as "" or
"0" and a warning is generated.
If $standalone is defined and is not 'no', 0, or '',
it is output as 'yes'. If it is 'no', then it is out
put as 'no'. If it's 0 or '' it is not output.
AUTOLOAD
This function is called whenever a function or method
is not found in XML::ValidWriter.
If it was a method being called, and the desired
method name is a start or end tag found in the DTD,
then a method is cooked up on the fly.
These methods are slower than normal methods, but they
are cached so that they don't need to be recompiled.
The speed penalty is probably not significant since
they do I/O and are thus usually orders of magnitude
slower than normal Perl methods.
DESTROY
DESTROY is called when an XML::ValidWriter is cleaned
up. This is used to automatically close all tags that
remain open. This will not work if you have closed
the output filehandle that the ValidWriter was using.
This method will also warn if anything was emitted bit
no root node was emitted. This warning can be
silenced by calling

$writer->reset() ;
when you abandon output.

AUTHOR

Barrie Slaymaker <barries@slaysys.com>

COPYRIGHT

This module is Copyright 2000, Barrie Slaymaker. All
rights reserved.

This module is licensed under the GPL, version 2. Please
contact me if this does not suit your needs.
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