XML file processing

Gentee Programming Language > Documentation > Libraries

XML file processing

This library is used for XML file processing and XML tree building. Neither a multibyte-character set nor a document type description <!DOCTYPE .....> are handled in the current version. For using this library, it is required to specify the file xml.ge (from Lib subfolder) with include command.
Variables of either the xml and the xmlitem type (an XML tree item) are used for processing XML documents.
An XML tree item can be of two types: a text item and a tag item. There are several types of tag items:

tag item that contains other items <tag ...>.....</tag>;
tag item that contains no other items <tag .../>;
tag item of processing instruction <?tag ...?>.

A tag item may contain attributes.

The sequence of operations for processing an XML document:

process a document (build an XML tree) with the help of the xml.procfile method or the xml.procstr method;
add entity definitions, using the xml.addentity method if necessary;
search for the required items in the XML tree using the following methods: xml.getroot, xmlitem.chtag, xmlitem.findtag, xmlitem.getnext, etc.;
use the foreach statement in order to process similar elements if necessary;
gain access to tag attributes with the help of the xmlitem.getattrib method and get a text using the xmlitem.gettext method.

Operations

Methods

Methods of XML tree items

Operations

Operations defined for the variable of xml type are listed below. The second column contains possible statements where typename is a variable or an expression of the specified type.

Operation Syntax Return type Comments
foreach The option of using in the foreach statement. Defining an optional variable of the xmltags type is required. The foreach statement is used for variables of the xmlitem type and goes through all child tag items of the current tag.
xmltags xtags ... foreach xmlitem cur, curtag.tags( xtags ) { ... }

Methods

xml.addentity Add an entity description
xml.getroot Get the root item of the XML document tree
xml.procfile Process an XML file
xml.procstr Process an XML string

Methods of XML tree items

xmlitem.chtag Get a tag item with the help of a "path"
xmlitem.findtag Search for a tag item by the name
xmlitem.getattrib Get a tag attribute
xmlitem.getchild Get the child item
xmlitem.getchildtag Get the child tag item
xmlitem.getchildtext Get the child text item
xmlitem.getnext Get the next item
xmlitem.getnexttag Get the next tag item
xmlitem.getnexttext Get the next text item
xmlitem.getparent Get the parent item
xmlitem.gettext Get a text of the current item
xmlitem.isemptytag Determine if the item is a tag item that contains no child items
xmlitem.ispitag Determine if the item is a tag of processing instruction
xmlitem.istag Determine if the item is a tag item
xmlitem.istext Determine if the item is a text item

xml.addentity	Add an entity description
xml.getroot	Get the root item of the XML document tree
xml.procfile	Process an XML file
xml.procstr	Process an XML string

xmlitem.chtag	Get a tag item with the help of a "path"
xmlitem.findtag	Search for a tag item by the name
xmlitem.getattrib	Get a tag attribute
xmlitem.getchild	Get the child item
xmlitem.getchildtag	Get the child tag item
xmlitem.getchildtext	Get the child text item
xmlitem.getnext	Get the next item
xmlitem.getnexttag	Get the next tag item
xmlitem.getnexttext	Get the next text item
xmlitem.getparent	Get the parent item
xmlitem.gettext	Get a text of the current item
xmlitem.isemptytag	Determine if the item is a tag item that contains no child items
xmlitem.ispitag	Determine if the item is a tag of processing instruction
xmlitem.istag	Determine if the item is a tag item
xmlitem.istext	Determine if the item is a text item