Methods

NAME

XML::LibXML::Document - DOM Document Class

synopsis

 use XML::LibXML

 $dom = XML::LibXML::Document->new( $version, $encoding );
 $dom = XML::LibXML::Document->createDocument( $version, $encoding );
 $strEncoding = $doc->encoding();
 $doc->setEncoding($new_encoding);
 $strVersion = $doc->version();
 $doc->standalone
 $doc->setStandalone($numvalue);
 my $compression = $doc->compression;
 $doc->setCompression($ziplevel);
 $docstring = $dom->toString($format);
 $state = $doc->toFile($filename, $format);
 $state = $doc->toFH($fh, $format);
 $document->toStringHTML();
 $bool = $dom->is_valid();
 $dom->validate();
 $root = $dom->documentElement();
 $dom->setDocumentElement( $root );
 $element = $dom->createElement( $nodename );
 $element = $dom->createElementNS( $namespaceURI, $qname );
 $text = $dom->createTextNode( $content_text );
 $comment = $dom->createComment( $comment_text );
 $attrnode = $doc->createAttribute($name [,$value]);
 $fragment = $doc->createDocumentFragment()
 $attrnode = $doc->createAttributeNS( namespaceURI, $name [,$value] );
 $cdata = $dom->create( $cdata_content );
 my $pi = $doc->createProcessingInstruction( $target, $data );
 my $entref = $doc->createEntityReference($refname);
 $document->importNode( $node );
 $document->adoptNode( $node );
 my $dtd = $doc->externalSubset;
 my $dtd = $doc->internalSubset;
 $doc->setExternalSubset($dtd);
 $doc->setInternalSubset($dtd);
 my $dtd = $doc->removeExternalSubset();
 my $dtd = $doc->removeInternalSubset();

DESCRIPTION

The Document Class is in most cases the result of a parsing process. But sometimes it is necessary to create a Document from scratch. The DOM Document Class provides functions that are conform to the DOM Core naming style.

It inherits all functions from XML::LibXML::Node as specified in the DOM specification. This enables to access the nodes beside the root element on document level - a DTD for example. The support for these nodes is limited at the moment.

While generaly nodes are bound to a document in the DOM concept it is suggested that one should always create a node not bound to any document. There is no need of really including the node to the document, but once the node is bound to a document, it is quite safe that all strings have the correct encoding. If an unbound textnode with an iso encoded string is created (e.g. with $CLASS->new()), the toString function may not return the expected result.

All this seems like a limitation as long UTF8 encoding is ashured. If iso encoded strings come into play it is much safer to use the node creation functions of XML::LibXML::Document.

Methods

new

alias for createDocument()

createDocument

The constructor for the document class. As Parameter it takes the version string and (optionally) the ecoding string. Simply calling createDocument will create the document:

 <?xml version="your version" encoding="your encoding"?>
                    
Both parameter are optional. The default value for
B<$version> is I<1.0>, of course. If
the B<$encoding> parameter is not set, the
encoding will be left unset, which means UTF8 is
implied.

The call of createDocument without any parameter will result the following code:

 <?xml version="1.0"?>
                    
Alternatively one can call this constructor
directly from the XML::LibXML class level, to
avoid some typing. This will not cause any effect
to the class instance, which is alway
XML::LibXML::Document.

 my $document = XML::LibXML->createDocument( "1.0", "UTF8" );

is therefore a shortcut for

 my $document = XML::LibXML::Document->createDocument( "1.0", "UTF8" );

encoding

returns the encoding string of the document.

 my $doc = XML::LibXML->createDocument( "1.0", "ISO-8859-15" );
 print $doc->encoding; # prints ISO-8859-15
                    
Optionally this function can be accessed by
B<actualEncoding> or B<getEncoding>.

setEncoding

From time to time it is useful to change the effective encoding of a document. This method provides the interface to manipulate the encoding of a document.

Note that this function has to be used very careful, since you can't simply convert one encoding in any other, since some (or even all) characters may not exist in the new encoding. XML::LibXML will not test if the operation is allowed or possible for the given document. The only switching ashured to work is to UTF8.

version

returns the version string of the document

getVersion() is an alternative form of this function.

standalone

This function returns the Numerical value of a documents XML declarations standalone attribute. It returns 1 if standalone="yes" was found, 0 if standalone="no" was found and -1 if standalone was not specified (default on creation).

setStandalone

Through this method it is possible to alter the value of a documents standalone attribute. Set it to 1 to set standalone="yes", to 0 to set standalone="no" or set it to -1 to remove the standalone attribute from the XML declaration.

compression

libxml2 allows to read documents directly from gziped files. In this case the compression variable is set to the compression level of that file (0-8). If XML::LibXML parsed a different source or the file wasn't compressed, the returned value will be -1.

setCompression

If one intends to write the document directly to a file, it is possible to set the compression level for a given document. This level can be in the range from 0 to 8. If XML::LibXML should not try to compress use -1 (default).

Note that this feature will only work if libxml2 is compiled with zlib support.

toString

toString is a deparsing function, so the DOM Tree can be translated into a string, ready for output.

The optional $format parameter sets the indenting of the output. This parameter is expected to be an integer value, that specifies that indentation should be used. The format parameter can have three different values if it is used: If $format is 0, than the document is dumped as it was originally parsed

If $format is 1, libxml2 will add ignoreable whitespaces, so the nodes content is easier to read. Existing text nodes will not be altered

If $format is 2 (or higher), libxml2 will act as $format == 1 but it add a leading and a trailing linebreak to each text node.

libxml2 uses a hardcoded indentation of 2 space characters per indentation level. This value can not be altered on runtime.

NOTE: XML::LibXML::Document::toString returns the data in the document encoding rather than UTF8!

toFile

This function is similar to toString(), but it writes the document directly into a filesystem. This function is very usefull, if one needs to store large documents.

The format parameter has the same behaviour as in toString().

toFH

This function is similar to toString(), but it writes the document directly to a filehandler or a stream.

The format parameter has the same behaviour as in toString().

toStringHTML

toStringHTML deparses the tree to a string as HTML. With this method indenting is automatic and managed by libxml2 internally.

is_valid

Returns either TRUE or FALSE depending on the DOM Tree is a valid Document or not.

You may also pass in a XML::LibXML::Dtd object, to validate against an external DTD:

 if (!$dom->is_valid($dtd)) {
     warn("document is not valid!");
 }

validate

This is an exception throwing equivalent of is_valid. If the document is not valid it will throw an exception containing the error. This allows you much better error reporting than simply is_valid or not.

Again, you may pass in a DTD object

documentElement

Returns the root element of the Document. A document can have just one root element to contain the documents data.

Optionaly one can use getDocumentElement.

setDocumentElement

This function enables you to set the root element for a document. The function supports the import of a node from a different document tree.

createElement

This function creates a new Element Node bound to the DOM with the name $nodename.

createElementNS

This function creates a new Element Node bound to the DOM with the name $nodename and placed in the given namespace.

createTextNode

As an equivalent of createElement, but it creates a Text Node bound to the DOM.

createComment

As an equivalent of createElement, but it creates a Comment Node bound to the DOM.

createAttribute

Creates a new Attribute node.

createDocumentFragment

This function creates a DocumentFragment.

createAttributeNS

Creates an Attribute bound to a namespace.

createCDATASection

Similar to createTextNode and createComment, this function creates a CDataSection bound to the current DOM.

createProcessingInstruction

create a processing instruction node.

Since this method is quite long one may use its short form createPI().

createEntityReference

If a docuemnt has a DTD specified, one can create entity refereferences by using this function. If one wants to add a entity reference to the document, this reference has to be created by this function.

An entity reference is unique to a document and cannot passed to other documents as other nodes can be passed. NOTE: A text content containing something that looks like an entity reference, will not be expanded to a real entity reference unless it is a predefined entity (such as >)

 my $string = "&foo;";
 $some_element->appendText( $string );
 print $some_element->textContent; # prints "&amp;foo;"

importNode

If a node is not part of a document, it can be imported to another document. As specified in DOM Level 2 Specification the Node will not be altered or removed from its original document ($node-cloneNode(1)> will get called implicitly).

NOTE: Don't try to use importNode() to import subtrees that contain an entity reference - even if the entity reference is the root node of the subtree. This will cause serious problems to your program. This is a limitation of libxml2 and not of XML::LibXML itself.

adoptNode

If a node is not part of a document, it can be imported to another document. As specified in DOM Level 3 Specification the Node will not be altered but it will removed from its original document.

After a document adopted a node, the node, its attributes and all its descendants belong to the new document. Because the node does not belong to the old document, it will be unlinked from its old location first.

NOTE: Don't try to adoptNode() to import subtrees that contain entity references - even if the entity reference is the root node of the subtree. This will cause serious problems to your program. This is a limitation of libxml2 and not of XML::LibXML itself.

externalSubset

If a document has an external subset defined it will be returned by this function.

NOTE Dtd nodes are no ordinary nodes in libxml2. The support for these nodes in XML::LibXML is still limited. In particular one may not want use common node function on doctype declaration nodes!

internalSubset

If a document has an internal subset defined it will be returned by this function.

NOTE Dtd nodes are no ordinary nodes in libxml2. The support for these nodes in XML::LibXML is still limited. In particular one may not want use common node function on doctype declaration nodes!

setExternalSubset

EXPERIMENTAL! This method sets a DTD node as an external subset of the given document.

setInternalSubset

EXPERIMENTAL! This method sets a DTD node as an internal subset of the given document.

removeExternalSubset

EXPERIMENTAL! If a document has an external subset defined it can be removed from the document by using this function. The removed dtd node will be returned.

removeInternalSubset

EXPERIMENTAL! If a document has an internal subset defined it can be removed from the document by using this function. The removed dtd node will be returned.

AUTHOR

Matt Sergeant, Christian Glahn

VERSION