NAME

NAME
XML::API - Perl extension for writing XML

VERSION
0.30 (2016-04-11)

SYNOPSIS
use XML::API;
my $x = XML::API->new(doctype => 'xhtml');
$x->_comment('My --First-- XML::API document');

$x->html_open();
$x->head_open();
$x->title('Test Page');
$x->head_close();
$x->body_open();
$x->div_open(-id => 'content');
$x->p(-class => 'test', 'Some <<odd>> input');
$x->ns__p(-class => 'test', '& some other &stuff;');
$x->div_close();
$x->body_close();
$x->html_close();

print $x;

Will produce this nice output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict...>

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>Test Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<div id="content">
<p class="test">Some <<odd>> input</p>
<ns:p class="test">& some other &stuff;</ns:p>
</div>
</body>
</html>

DESCRIPTION
XML::API is a class for creating XML documents using object method
calls. This class is meant for generating XML programatically and not
for reading or parsing it.

A document author calls the desired methods (representing elements) to
create an XML tree in memory which can then be rendered or saved as
desired. The advantage of having the in-memory tree is that you can be
very flexible about when different parts of the document are created and
the final output is always nicely rendered.

TUTORIAL
The first step is to create an object. The 'doctype' attribute is
mandatory. Known values (ie - distributed with XML::API) are 'xhtml' and
'rss'. The encoding is not mandatory and will default to 'UTF-8'.

use XML::API;
my $x = XML::API->new(doctype => 'xhtml', encoding => 'UTF-8');

$x is the only object we need for our entire XHTML document. It starts
out empty so we want to open up the html element:

$x->html_open;

Because we have called a *_open() function the 'current' or 'containing'
element is now 'html'. All further elements will be added inside the
'html' element. So lets add head and title elements and the title
content ('Document Title') to our object:

$x->head_open;
$x->title('Document Title');

The 'title()' method on its own (ie not 'title_open()') indicates that
we are specifiying the entire title element. Further method calls will
continue to place elements inside the 'head' element until we specifiy
we want to move on by calling the _close method:

$x->head_close();

This sets the current element back to 'html'.

So, basic elements seem relatively easy. How do we create elements with
attributes? When either the element() or element_open() methods are
called with a hashref argument the keys and values of the hashref become
the attributes:

$x->body_open({id => 'bodyid'}, 'Content', 'more content');

or if you want, you can also use CGI-style attributes which I prefer
because it takes less typing:

$x->body_open(-id => 'bodyid', 'Content', 'more content');

By the way, both the element() and element_open() methods take arbitrary
numbers of content arguments as shown above. However if you don't want
to specify the content of the element at the time you open it up you can
use the _add() utility method later on:

$x->div_open();
$x->_add('Content added after the _open');

The final thing is to close out the elements and render the docment.

$x->div_close();
$x->body_close();
print $x->_as_string();

Because we are not adding any more elements or content it is not
strictly necessary to close out all elements, but consider it good
practice.

You can add XML::API object to other objects, which lets you create for
instance the head and body parts separately, and just bring them all
together just before printing:

my $h = XML::API::XHTML->new();
$h->head_open
...
my $x = XML::API::XHTML->new();
$x->html_open;
$x->_add($h);
$x->html_close;
print $x;

Note that it is also possible to call the XML::API::<doctype> class
directly.

CLASS SUBROUTINES
new
Create a new XML::API based object. The object is initialized as empty
(ie contains no elements). Takes the following optional arguments:

doctype => '(xhtml|rss|WIX2)'
encoding => 'xxx'
debug => 1|0

If a valid (ie known to XML::API) doctype is given then an object of
class XML::API::DOCTYPE will be returned instead. This method will die
if doctype is unknown. You can also call XML::API::DOCTYPE->new()
directly.

For the effects of the encoding and debug parameters see the
documentation for '_encoding' and '_debug' below.

CONTENT
$x->element_open(-attribute => $value, {attr2 => 'val2'}, $content)
Add a new element to the 'current' element, and set the current element
to be the element just created. Returns a reference (private data type)
to the new element which can be used in the _goto function below.

Ie given that $x currently represents:

<html> <---- 'current' element
<---- future elements/content goes here
</html>

then $x->head_open(-attribute => $value) means the tree is now:

<html>
<head attribute="$value"> <---- 'current' element
<---- future elements/content goes here
</head>
</html>

$x->_open('element', -attribute => $value, {attr2 => 'val2'}, $content)
The generic/underlying implementation of $x->element_open. Useful if
your element names are not suitable as Perl method calls, or are
otherwise funny (eg starting with '_').

$x->_add($content)
Add $content to the 'current' element. If there is no current element
then this method will croak.

If $content is a scalar (ie plain text or numbers) then the characters
'<&">' will be XML-escaped. If $content is another XML::API object the
elements of that object will be added to content tree.

This method will also croak if you attempt to add $x to itself or if $x
is an empty XML::API object.

$x->_raw($content)
Adds unescaped content to the 'current' element. You need to be careful
of characters that mean something in XML such as '<','&' and '>'. This
method will die if $content is an XML::API derivative or if $x does not
have a current element.

$x->element_close( )
This does not actually modify the tree but simply tells the object that
future elements will be added to the parent of the current element. Ie
given that $x currently represents:

<div>
<p> <---- 'current' element
$content
<---- future elements/content goes here
</p>
</div>

then $x->p_close() means the tree is now:

<div> <---- 'current' element
<p>
$content
</p>
<---- future elements go here
</div>

If you try to call a _close() method that doesn't match the current
element a warning will be issued and the call will fail.

$x->_close('element')
The generic/underlying implementation of $x->element_close. Useful if
your element names are not suitable as Perl method calls, or are
otherwise funny (eg starting with '_').

$x->element(-attribute => $value, {attr2 => 'val2'}, $content)
Add a new element to the 'current' element but keep the 'current'
element the same. Returns a reference (private data type) to the new
element which can be used in the _goto function below.

This is effectively the same as the following:

$x->element_open(-attribute => $value, -attr2=>'val2');
$x->_add($content);
$x->element_close;

If $content is not given (or never added with the _add method) for an
element then it will be rendered as empty. Ie, $x->br() produces:

<br />

$x->_element('element',...)
The generic implementation of $x->element. Useful if your element names
are not suitable as Perl method calls, or are otherwise funny (eg
starting with '_').

$x->element_raw('raw content',...)
Adds unescaped content inside an element named 'element'. This is a
shortcut for the case where you find yourself doing the following:

$x->element_open();
$x->_raw($content);
$x->element_close();

$x->ns__element_open(...)
Same as $x->element_open but prefixed with an XML namespace. Equivalent
to the following.

$x->_ns('ns');
$x->element_open(...);
...
$x->element_close;
$x->_ns(undef);

$x->ns__element(...)
Same as $x->element but prefixed with an XML namespace. Equivalent to
the following.

$x->_ns('ns');
$x->element(...);
$x->_ns(undef);

$x->_comment($comment)
Add an XML comment to $x. Is almost the same as this:

$x->_raw("\n')

Except that indentation is correct. Any occurences of '--' in $content
will be replaced with '- -'.

$x->_cdata($content)
A shortcut for $x->_raw("\n<![CDATA[", $content, " ]]>");

$x->_css($content )
Adds $content inside a pair of CDATA tags which are encapsulated inside
CSS comments. Similar to:

$x->_raw('/*<![CDATA[*/ '. $content .' /*]]>*/');

$x->_javascript($script )
A shortcut for adding $script inside a pair of <script
type="text/javascript"> elements and a _CDATA tag.

$x->_parse(@content)
Adds content to the current element, but will parse it for xml elements
and add them as method calls. Regardless of $content (missing end tags
etc) the current element will remain the same. Relies on XML::SAX to do
the parsing using the "parse_string" method. In this case XML::SAX
requires that the content is a complete xml document.

$x->_parse_chunk(@content)
Adds content to the current element, but will parse it for xml elements
and add them as method calls. Regardless of $content (missing end tags
etc) the current element will remain the same. Relies on XML::SAX to do
the parsing, but using the "parse_chunk" method. This method is suitable
for parsing xml fragments which are not necessarily complete.

$x->_ast(@content)
Sometimes you may want to just build some kind of abstract syntax tree
structure and just feed it to XML::API without having to make all the
method calls yourself. This method lets you do just that.

The following input:

p => [
label => 'Body',
textarea => [
-rows => 10,
-cols => 50,
-name => 'body',
'the body',
],
],

results in the following xml:

<p>
<label>Body</label>
<textarea cols="50" name="body" rows="10">the body</textarea>
</p>

$x->_attrs( )
Allows you to get/set the attributes of the current element. Accepts and
returns and hashref.

META DATA
$x->_encoding($value)
Set the encoding definition produced in the xml declaration. Returns the
current value if called without an argument. This is an alternative to
defining the encoding in the call to 'new'.

The XML encoding definition for objects is determined by the following,
in this order:

* the last call to _encoding
* the encoding parameter given at object creation
* $XML::API::ENCODING, set by your script before calling new
* UTF-8, the package default

If you _add one object to another with different encodings the top-level
object's definition will be used.

$x->_set_lang($lang, [$dir])
Add an 'xml:lang' attribute, and an optional text direction $dir to the
next element to be created. In terms of output created this means that:

$x->_set_lang('de', 'ltr');
$x->p('Was sagst du?');

is equivalent to:

$x->p(-xml:lang => 'de', -dir => 'ltr', 'Was sagst du?');

with the added difference that _set_lang keeps track of each call and
the list of languages set can be retrieved using the _langs method
below.

The first time _set_lang is called the xml:lang attribute will be added
to the root element instead of the next one, unless $x is a generic XML
document. Without a XML::API::<class> object we don't know if we have
the root element or not.

$x->_lang
Returns the language of the current element. Note that this is not
always the same as the last value given to _set_lang, but depends on
what the current element is. Returns 'undef' if the document has no
'xml:lang' at all.

$x->_langs
Returns the list of the languages that have been specified by _set_lang.

$x->_dir
Returns the text direction of the current element. Note that this is not
always the same as the last value given to _set_lang, but depends on
what the current element is. Returns 'undef' if the document has no
direction specified.

$x->_ns($namespace)
Sets the XML namespace for future elements added with element() or
element_open(). Use 'undef' for no namespace. If you just want a
single-shot namespace you can also call element methods with a namespace
postfixed by '__' (two underscores).

$x->_debug(1|0)
Turn on|off debugging from this point onwards. Debugging appears as xml
comments in the rendered XML output.

$x->_current( )
Returns a reference (private data type) to the current element. Can be
used in the _goto method to get back to the current element in the
future.

$x->_set_id($id)
Set an identifier for the current element. You can then use the value of
$id in the _goto() method.

$x->_goto($id)
Change the 'current' element. $id is a value which has been previously
used in the _set_id() method, or the return value of a _current() call.

This is useful if you create the basic structure of your document, but
then later want to go back and modify it or fill in the details.

OUTPUT
$x->_as_string($file)
Returns the xml-rendered version of the object. If $x has the root
element for the doctype, or if $x is a pure XML::API object then the
string is prefixed by the XML declaration (with the encoding as defined
in the '_encoding' method documentation):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>

The optional $file argument will cause the string to be written out to
disk instead of being returned.

$x->_fast_string($file)
Returns the rendered version of the XML document without newlines or
indentation.

The optional $file argument will cause the string to be written out to
disk instead of being returned.

OVERLOADING
See the source code of XML::API::XHTML for how to create a new doctype.

These are methods which may return interesting values if the
XML::API::<class> module has overloaded them.

_doctype
Returns the XML DOCTYPE declaration

_root_element
Returns the root element

_root_attrs
Returns a hashref containing default key/value attributes for the root
element

_content_type
Returns a string suitable for including in a HTTP 'Content-Type' header.

COMPATABILITY
Since version 0.10 a call to new() does not automatically add the root
element to the object. If it did so you wouldn't be able to add one
object to another.

Version 0.13 made the doctype parameter to new() optional, so that
generic (ie no DOCTYPE declaration) XML documents can be created.

Version 0.15 removed the pointless _print method.

SEE ALSO
XML::Generator and XML::Writer are other xml producing modules.

If you are thinking of using XML::API in a CGI program check out NCGI.

AUTHOR
Mark Lawrence <[email protected]>

A small request: if you use this module I would appreciate hearing about
it.

COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2004-2016 Mark Lawrence <[email protected]>

LICENSE
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
option) any later version.