1/4/2016

A real example

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TheXMLCparserandtoolkit
ofGnome
Arealexample

Hereisarealsizeexample,wheretheactualcontentoftheapplicationdataisnotkeptin
theDOMtreebutusesinternalstructures.Itisbasedonaproposaltokeepadatabaseof
jobsrelatedtoGnome,withanXMLbasedstoragestructure.HereisanXMLencoded
jobsbase:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<gjob:Helping xmlns:gjob="http://www.gnome.org/some-location">
<gjob:Jobs>
<gjob:Job>
<gjob:Project ID="3"/>
<gjob:Application>GBackup</gjob:Application>
<gjob:Category>Development</gjob:Category>
<gjob:Update>
<gjob:Status>Open</gjob:Status>
<gjob:Modified>Mon, 07 Jun 1999 20:27:45 -0400 MET DST</gjob:Modified>
<gjob:Salary>USD 0.00</gjob:Salary>
</gjob:Update>
<gjob:Developers>
<gjob:Developer>
</gjob:Developer>
</gjob:Developers>
<gjob:Contact>
<gjob:Person>Nathan Clemons</gjob:Person>
<gjob:Email>nathan@windsofstorm.net</gjob:Email>
<gjob:Company>
</gjob:Company>
<gjob:Organisation>
</gjob:Organisation>
<gjob:Webpage>
</gjob:Webpage>
<gjob:Snailmail>
</gjob:Snailmail>
<gjob:Phone>
</gjob:Phone>
</gjob:Contact>
<gjob:Requirements>
The program should be released as free software, under the GPL.
</gjob:Requirements>
<gjob:Skills>
</gjob:Skills>
<gjob:Details>
A GNOME based system that will allow a superuser to configure
compressed and uncompressed files and/or file systems to be backed
up with a supported media in the system. This should be able to
perform via find commands generating a list of files that are passed
to tar, dd, cpio, cp, gzip, etc., to be directed to the tape machine
or via operations performed on the filesystem itself. Email
notification and GUI status display very important.
</gjob:Details>

file:///home/christian/Desktop/libxml2-2.7.2/doc/example.html

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1/4/2016

A real example

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</gjob:Job>
</gjob:Jobs>
</gjob:Helping>

WhileloadingtheXMLfileintoaninternalDOMtreeisamatterofcallingonlyacoupleof
functions,browsingthetreetogatherthedataandgeneratetheinternalstructuresis
harder,andmoreerrorprone.
Thesuggestedprincipleistobetolerantwithrespecttotheinputstructure.Forexample,
theorderingoftheattributesisnotsignificant,theXMLspecificationisclearaboutit.It's
alsousuallyagoodideanottodependontheorderofthechildrenofagivennode,unless
itreallymakesthingsharder.Hereissomecodetoparsetheinformationforaperson:
/*
* A person record
*/
typedef struct person {
char *name;
char *email;
char *company;
char *organisation;
char *smail;
char *webPage;
char *phone;
} person, *personPtr;
/*
* And the code needed to parse it
*/
personPtr parsePerson(xmlDocPtr doc, xmlNsPtr ns, xmlNodePtr cur) {
personPtr ret = NULL;
DEBUG("parsePerson\n");
/*
* allocate the struct
*/
ret = (personPtr) malloc(sizeof(person));
if (ret == NULL) {
fprintf(stderr,"out of memory\n");
return(NULL);
}
memset(ret, 0, sizeof(person));
/* We don't care what the top level element name is */
cur = cur->xmlChildrenNode;
while (cur != NULL) {
if ((!strcmp(cur->name, "Person")) && (cur->ns == ns))
ret->name = xmlNodeListGetString(doc, cur->xmlChildrenNode, 1);
if ((!strcmp(cur->name, "Email")) && (cur->ns == ns))
ret->email = xmlNodeListGetString(doc, cur->xmlChildrenNode, 1);
cur = cur->next;
}
}

return(ret);

Hereareacoupleofthingstonotice:
Usuallyarecursiveparsingstyleisthemoreconvenientone:XMLdataisbynature
subjecttorepetitiveconstructsandusuallyexhibitshighlystructuredpatterns.
ThetwoargumentsoftypexmlDocPtrandxmlNsPtr,i.e.thepointertotheglobal
XMLdocumentandthenamespacereservedtotheapplication.Documentwide
informationareneededforexampletodecodeentitiesandit'sagoodcoding
practicetodefineanamespaceforyourapplicationsetofdataandtestthatthe
elementandattributesyou'reanalyzingactuallypertainstoyourapplicationspace.
Thisisdonebyasimpleequalitytest(cur>ns==ns).
Toretrievetextandattributesvalue,youcanusethefunctionxmlNodeListGetString
togatherallthetextandentityreferencenodesgeneratedbytheDOMoutputand
produceansingletextstring.
file:///home/christian/Desktop/libxml2-2.7.2/doc/example.html

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1/4/2016

A real example

Hereisanotherpieceofcodeusedtoparseanotherlevelofthestructure:
#include <libxml/tree.h>
/*
* a Description for a Job
*/
typedef struct job {
char *projectID;
char *application;
char *category;
personPtr contact;
int nbDevelopers;
personPtr developers[100]; /* using dynamic alloc is left as an exercise */
} job, *jobPtr;
/*
* And the code needed to parse it
*/
jobPtr parseJob(xmlDocPtr doc, xmlNsPtr ns, xmlNodePtr cur) {
jobPtr ret = NULL;
DEBUG("parseJob\n");
/*
* allocate the struct
*/
ret = (jobPtr) malloc(sizeof(job));
if (ret == NULL) {
fprintf(stderr,"out of memory\n");
return(NULL);
}
memset(ret, 0, sizeof(job));
/* We don't care what the top level element name is */
cur = cur->xmlChildrenNode;
while (cur != NULL) {

}
}

if ((!strcmp(cur->name, "Project")) && (cur->ns == ns)) {

ret->projectID = xmlGetProp(cur, "ID");
if (ret->projectID == NULL) {
fprintf(stderr, "Project has no ID\n");
}
}
if ((!strcmp(cur->name, "Application")) && (cur->ns == ns))
ret->application = xmlNodeListGetString(doc, cur->xmlChildrenNode, 1);
if ((!strcmp(cur->name, "Category")) && (cur->ns == ns))
ret->category = xmlNodeListGetString(doc, cur->xmlChildrenNode, 1);
if ((!strcmp(cur->name, "Contact")) && (cur->ns == ns))
ret->contact = parsePerson(doc, ns, cur);
cur = cur->next;

return(ret);

Onceyouareusedtoit,writingthiskindofcodeisquitesimple,butboring.Ultimately,it
couldbepossibletowritestubberstakingeitherCdatastructuredefinitions,asetofXML
examplesoranXMLDTDandproducethecodeneededtoimportandexportthecontent
betweenCdataandXMLstorage.Thisisleftasanexercisetothereader:)
FeelfreetousethecodeforthefullCparsingexampleasatemplate,itisalsoavailable
withMakefileintheGnomeSVNbaseunderlibxml2/example
DanielVeillard

file:///home/christian/Desktop/libxml2-2.7.2/doc/example.html

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