/ 
Data-DumpXML-1.05
River stage one • 4 direct dependents • 6 total dependents
/ Data::DumpXML

NAME

Data::DumpXML - Dump arbitrary data structures as XML

SYNOPSIS

use Data::DumpXML qw(dump_xml);
$xml = dump_xml(@list)

DESCRIPTION

This module provide a single function called dump_xml() that takes a list of perl values as argument and produce a string as result. The string returned is an XML document that represents any perl data structures passed in. Reference loops are handled correctly.

The following data model is used:

data : scalar*
scalar = undef | str | ref | alias
ref : scalar | array | hash | glob | code
array: scalar*
hash: (key scalar)*

The distribution comes with an XML Schema and a DTD that more formally describe this structure.

As an example of the XML documents produced; the following call:

$a = bless [1,2], "Foo";
dump_xml($a);

will produce:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="US-ASCII"?>
<data xmlns="http://www.cpan.org/.../Data-DumpXML.xsd">
 <ref>
  <array class="Foo">
   <str>1</str>
   <str>2</str>
  </array>
 </ref>
</data>

If dump_xml() is called in void context, then the dump will be printed on STDERR automatically. For compatibility with Data::Dump there is also an alias for dump_xml() simply called dump().

The Data::DumpXML::Parser is a class that can restore data structures dumped by dump_xml().

Configuration variables

The generated XML is influenced by a set of configuration variables. If you modify them, then it is a good idea to localize the effect. E.g.:

sub my_dump_xml {
    local $Data::DumpXML::INDENT = "";
    local $Data::DumpXML::XML_DECL = 0;
    local $Data::DumpXML::DTD_LOCATION = "";
    local $Data::DumpXML::NS_PREFIX = "dumpxml";

    return dump_xml(@_);
}

The variables are:

$Data::DumpXML::INDENT

You can set the variable $Data::DumpXML::INDENT to control the amount of indenting. The variable contains the whitespace you want to be used for each level of indenting. The default is a single space. To suppress indenting set it as "".

$Data::DumpXML::INDENT_STYLE

This variable controls where end element are placed. If you set this variable to the value "Lisp" then end tags are not prefixed by NL. This give a more compact output.

$Data::DumpXML::XML_DECL

This boolean variable controls whether an XML declaration should be prefixed to the output. The XML declaration is the <?xml ...?> thingy. The default is 1. Set this value to 0 to suppress the declaration.

$Data::DumpXML::NAMESPACE

This variable contains the namespace used for the the XML elements. The default is to let this be a URI that actually resolve to the XML Schema on CPAN. Set it to "" to disable use of namespaces.

$Data::DumpXML::NS_PREFIX

This variable contains the namespace prefix to use on the elements. The default is "" which means that a default namespace will be declared.

$Data::DumpXML::SCHEMA_LOCATION

This variable contains the location of the XML Schema. If this variable is non-empty, then an xsi:schemaLocation attribute will be added the top level data element. The default is to not include this as the location can be guessed from the default XML namespace used.

$Data::DumpXML::DTD_LOCATION

This variable contains the location of the DTD. If this variable is non-empty, then a <!DOCTYPE ...> will be included in the output. The default is to point to the DTD on CPAN. Set it to "" to suppress the <!DOCTYPE ...> line.

BUGS

Class names with 8-bit characters will be dumped as Latin-1, but converted to UTF-8 when restored by the Data::DumpXML::Parser.

The content of globs and subroutines are not dumped. They are restored as the strings; "** glob **" and "** code **".

LVALUE and IO objects are not dumped at all. They will simply disappear from the restored data structure.

SEE ALSO

Data::DumpXML::Parser, XML::Parser, XML::Dumper, Data::Dump

AUTHORS

The Data::DumpXML module is written by Gisle Aas <gisle@aas.no>, based on Data::Dump.

The Data::Dump module was written by Gisle Aas, based on Data::Dumper by Gurusamy Sarathy <gsar@umich.edu>.

Copyright 1998-2003 Gisle Aas.
Copyright 1996-1998 Gurusamy Sarathy.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.