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13<title>The SAX interface</title>
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21<h1>The XML C library for Gnome</h1>
22<h2>The SAX interface</h2>
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74<p>Sometimes the DOM tree output is just too large to fit reasonably into
75memory. In that case (and if you don't expect to save back the XML document
76loaded using libxml), it's better to use the SAX interface of libxml. SAX is
77a <strong>callback-based interface</strong> to the parser. Before parsing,
78the application layer registers a customized set of callbacks which are
79called by the library as it progresses through the XML input.</p>
80<p>To get more detailed step-by-step guidance on using the SAX interface of
81libxml, see the <a href="http://www.daa.com.au/~james/gnome/xml-sax/xml-sax.html">nice
82documentation</a>.written by <a href="mailto:james@daa.com.au">James
83Henstridge</a>.</p>
84<p>You can debug the SAX behaviour by using the <strong>testSAX</strong>
85program located in the gnome-xml module (it's usually not shipped in the
86binary packages of libxml, but you can find it in the tar source
87distribution). Here is the sequence of callbacks that would be reported by
88testSAX when parsing the example XML document shown earlier:</p>
89<pre>SAX.setDocumentLocator()
90SAX.startDocument()
91SAX.getEntity(amp)
92SAX.startElement(EXAMPLE, prop1='gnome is great', prop2='&amp;amp; linux too')
93SAX.characters( , 3)
94SAX.startElement(head)
95SAX.characters( , 4)
96SAX.startElement(title)
97SAX.characters(Welcome to Gnome, 16)
98SAX.endElement(title)
99SAX.characters( , 3)
100SAX.endElement(head)
101SAX.characters( , 3)
102SAX.startElement(chapter)
103SAX.characters( , 4)
104SAX.startElement(title)
105SAX.characters(The Linux adventure, 19)
106SAX.endElement(title)
107SAX.characters( , 4)
108SAX.startElement(p)
109SAX.characters(bla bla bla ..., 15)
110SAX.endElement(p)
111SAX.characters( , 4)
112SAX.startElement(image, href='linus.gif')
113SAX.endElement(image)
114SAX.characters( , 4)
115SAX.startElement(p)
116SAX.characters(..., 3)
117SAX.endElement(p)
118SAX.characters( , 3)
119SAX.endElement(chapter)
120SAX.characters( , 1)
121SAX.endElement(EXAMPLE)
122SAX.endDocument()</pre>
123<p>Most of the other interfaces of libxml are based on the DOM tree-building
124facility, so nearly everything up to the end of this document presupposes the
125use of the standard DOM tree build. Note that the DOM tree itself is built by
126a set of registered default callbacks, without internal specific
127interface.</p>
128<p><a href="mailto:daniel@veillard.com">Daniel Veillard</a></p>
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