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21<h1>The XML C library for Gnome</h1>
22<h2>Python and bindings</h2>
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86<p>There is a number of language bindings and wrappers available for libxml2,
87the list below is not exhaustive. Please contact the <a href="http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/xml-bindings">xml-bindings@gnome.org</a>
88(<a href="http://mail.gnome.org/archives/xml-bindings/">archives</a>) in
89order to get updates to this list or to discuss the specific topic of libxml2
90or libxslt wrappers or bindings:</p>
91<ul>
92<li>
Daniel Veillardaf43f632002-03-08 15:05:20 +000093<a href="mailto:ari@lusis.org">Ari Johnson</a> provides a C++ wrapper
94 for libxml:<br>
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +000095 Website: <a href="http://lusis.org/~ari/xml++/">http://lusis.org/~ari/xml++/</a><br>
96 Download: <a href="http://lusis.org/~ari/xml++/libxml++.tar.gz">http://lusis.org/~ari/xml++/libxml++.tar.gz</a>
97</li>
98<li>There is another <a href="http://libgdome-cpp.berlios.de/">C++ wrapper
99 based on the gdome2 </a>bindings maintained by Tobias Peters.</li>
100<li>
101<a href="http://mail.gnome.org/archives/xml/2001-March/msg00014.html">Matt
Daniel Veillardaf43f632002-03-08 15:05:20 +0000102 Sergeant</a> developped <a href="http://axkit.org/download/">XML::LibXSLT</a>, a perl wrapper for
103 libxml2/libxslt as part of the <a href="http://axkit.com/">AxKit XML
104 application server</a>
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000105</li>
106<li>
Daniel Veillardaf43f632002-03-08 15:05:20 +0000107<a href="mailto:dkuhlman@cutter.rexx.com">Dave Kuhlman</a> provides and
108 earlier version of the libxml/libxslt <a href="http://www.rexx.com/~dkuhlman">wrappers for Python</a>
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000109</li>
110<li>Petr Kozelka provides <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/libxml2-pas">Pascal units to glue
111 libxml2</a> with Kylix, Delphi and other Pascal compilers</li>
112<li>Wai-Sun &quot;Squidster&quot; Chia provides <a href="http://www.rubycolor.org/arc/redist/">bindings for Ruby</a> and
113 libxml2 bindings are also available in Ruby through the <a href="http://libgdome-ruby.berlios.de/">libgdome-ruby</a> module
114 maintained by Tobias Peters.</li>
Daniel Veillardaf43f632002-03-08 15:05:20 +0000115<li>Steve Ball and contributors maintains <a href="http://tclxml.sourceforge.net/">libxml2 and libxslt bindings for
Daniel Veillardb9e469a2002-02-21 12:08:42 +0000116 Tcl</a>
117</li>
Daniel Veillardaf43f632002-03-08 15:05:20 +0000118<li>There is support for libxml2 in the DOM module of PHP.</li>
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000119</ul>
120<p>The distribution includes a set of Python bindings, which are garanteed to
121be maintained as part of the library in the future, though the Python
Daniel Veillard0b79dfe2002-02-23 13:02:31 +0000122interface have not yet reached the maturity of the C API.</p>
Daniel Veillardaf43f632002-03-08 15:05:20 +0000123<p>To install the Python bindings there are 2 options:</p>
Daniel Veillard0b79dfe2002-02-23 13:02:31 +0000124<ul>
Daniel Veillardaf43f632002-03-08 15:05:20 +0000125<li>If you use an RPM based distribution, simply install the <a href="http://rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/search.php?query=libxml2-python">libxml2-python
126 RPM</a> (and if needed the <a href="http://rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/search.php?query=libxslt-python">libxslt-python
127 RPM</a>).</li>
128<li>Otherwise use the <a href="ftp://xmlsoft.org/python/">libxml2-python
129 module distribution</a> corresponding to your installed version of
130 libxml2 and libxslt. Note that to install it you will need both libxml2
131 and libxslt installed and run &quot;python setup.py build install&quot; in the
132 module tree.</li>
Daniel Veillard0b79dfe2002-02-23 13:02:31 +0000133</ul>
Daniel Veillardaf43f632002-03-08 15:05:20 +0000134<p>The distribution includes a set of examples and regression tests for the
135python bindings in the <code>python/tests</code> directory. Here are some
136excepts from those tests:</p>
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000137<h3>tst.py:</h3>
138<p>This is a basic test of the file interface and DOM navigation:</p>
Daniel Veillard9eb146b2002-02-21 16:04:51 +0000139<pre>import libxml2
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000140
141doc = libxml2.parseFile(&quot;tst.xml&quot;)
142if doc.name != &quot;tst.xml&quot;:
143 print &quot;doc.name failed&quot;
144 sys.exit(1)
145root = doc.children
146if root.name != &quot;doc&quot;:
147 print &quot;root.name failed&quot;
148 sys.exit(1)
149child = root.children
150if child.name != &quot;foo&quot;:
151 print &quot;child.name failed&quot;
152 sys.exit(1)
Daniel Veillard9eb146b2002-02-21 16:04:51 +0000153doc.freeDoc()</pre>
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000154<p>The Python module is called libxml2, parseFile is the equivalent of
155xmlParseFile (most of the bindings are automatically generated, and the xml
156prefix is removed and the casing convention are kept). All node seen at the
157binding level share the same subset of accesors:</p>
158<ul>
159<li>
Daniel Veillardaf43f632002-03-08 15:05:20 +0000160<code>name</code> : returns the node name</li>
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000161<li>
Daniel Veillardaf43f632002-03-08 15:05:20 +0000162<code>type</code> : returns a string indicating the node
163 typ<code>e</code>
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000164</li>
165<li>
Daniel Veillardaf43f632002-03-08 15:05:20 +0000166<code>content</code> : returns the content of the node, it is based on
167 xmlNodeGetContent() and hence is recursive.</li>
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000168<li>
Daniel Veillardaf43f632002-03-08 15:05:20 +0000169<code>parent</code> , <code>children</code>, <code>last</code>,
170 <code>next</code>, <code>prev</code>, <code>doc</code>,
171 <code>properties</code>: pointing to the associated element in the tree,
172 those may return None in case no such link exists.</li>
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000173</ul>
174<p>Also note the need to explicitely deallocate documents with freeDoc() .
175Reference counting for libxml2 trees would need quite a lot of work to
176function properly, and rather than risk memory leaks if not implemented
177correctly it sounds safer to have an explicit function to free a tree. The
178wrapper python objects like doc, root or child are them automatically garbage
179collected.</p>
180<h3>validate.py:</h3>
181<p>This test check the validation interfaces and redirection of error
182messages:</p>
Daniel Veillard9eb146b2002-02-21 16:04:51 +0000183<pre>import libxml2
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000184
185#desactivate error messages from the validation
186def noerr(ctx, str):
187 pass
188
189libxml2.registerErrorHandler(noerr, None)
190
191ctxt = libxml2.createFileParserCtxt(&quot;invalid.xml&quot;)
192ctxt.validate(1)
193ctxt.parseDocument()
194doc = ctxt.doc()
195valid = ctxt.isValid()
196doc.freeDoc()
197if valid != 0:
Daniel Veillard9eb146b2002-02-21 16:04:51 +0000198 print &quot;validity chec failed&quot;</pre>
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000199<p>The first thing to notice is the call to registerErrorHandler(), it
200defines a new error handler global to the library. It is used to avoid seeing
201the error messages when trying to validate the invalid document.</p>
202<p>The main interest of that test is the creation of a parser context with
203createFileParserCtxt() and how the behaviour can be changed before calling
204parseDocument() . Similary the informations resulting from the parsing phase
205are also available using context methods.</p>
206<p>Contexts like nodes are defined as class and the libxml2 wrappers maps the
207C function interfaces in terms of objects method as much as possible. The
208best to get a complete view of what methods are supported is to look at the
209libxml2.py module containing all the wrappers.</p>
210<h3>push.py:</h3>
211<p>This test show how to activate the push parser interface:</p>
Daniel Veillard9eb146b2002-02-21 16:04:51 +0000212<pre>import libxml2
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000213
214ctxt = libxml2.createPushParser(None, &quot;&lt;foo&quot;, 4, &quot;test.xml&quot;)
215ctxt.parseChunk(&quot;/&gt;&quot;, 2, 1)
216doc = ctxt.doc()
217
Daniel Veillard9eb146b2002-02-21 16:04:51 +0000218doc.freeDoc()</pre>
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000219<p>The context is created with a speciall call based on the
220xmlCreatePushParser() from the C library. The first argument is an optional
221SAX callback object, then the initial set of data, the lenght and the name of
222the resource in case URI-References need to be computed by the parser.</p>
223<p>Then the data are pushed using the parseChunk() method, the last call
224setting the thrird argument terminate to 1.</p>
225<h3>pushSAX.py:</h3>
226<p>this test show the use of the event based parsing interfaces. In this case
227the parser does not build a document, but provides callback information as
228the parser makes progresses analyzing the data being provided:</p>
Daniel Veillard9eb146b2002-02-21 16:04:51 +0000229<pre>import libxml2
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000230log = &quot;&quot;
231
232class callback:
233 def startDocument(self):
234 global log
235 log = log + &quot;startDocument:&quot;
236
237 def endDocument(self):
238 global log
239 log = log + &quot;endDocument:&quot;
240
241 def startElement(self, tag, attrs):
242 global log
243 log = log + &quot;startElement %s %s:&quot; % (tag, attrs)
244
245 def endElement(self, tag):
246 global log
247 log = log + &quot;endElement %s:&quot; % (tag)
248
249 def characters(self, data):
250 global log
251 log = log + &quot;characters: %s:&quot; % (data)
252
253 def warning(self, msg):
254 global log
255 log = log + &quot;warning: %s:&quot; % (msg)
256
257 def error(self, msg):
258 global log
259 log = log + &quot;error: %s:&quot; % (msg)
260
261 def fatalError(self, msg):
262 global log
263 log = log + &quot;fatalError: %s:&quot; % (msg)
264
265handler = callback()
266
267ctxt = libxml2.createPushParser(handler, &quot;&lt;foo&quot;, 4, &quot;test.xml&quot;)
268chunk = &quot; url='tst'&gt;b&quot;
269ctxt.parseChunk(chunk, len(chunk), 0)
270chunk = &quot;ar&lt;/foo&gt;&quot;
271ctxt.parseChunk(chunk, len(chunk), 1)
272
Daniel Veillardfcbfa2d2002-02-21 17:54:27 +0000273reference = &quot;startDocument:startElement foo {'url': 'tst'}:&quot; + \
274 &quot;characters: bar:endElement foo:endDocument:&quot;
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000275if log != reference:
276 print &quot;Error got: %s&quot; % log
Daniel Veillard9eb146b2002-02-21 16:04:51 +0000277 print &quot;Exprected: %s&quot; % reference</pre>
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000278<p>The key object in that test is the handler, it provides a number of entry
279points which can be called by the parser as it makes progresses to indicate
280the information set obtained. The full set of callback is larger than what
281the callback class in that specific example implements (see the SAX
282definition for a complete list). The wrapper will only call those supplied by
283the object when activated. The startElement receives the names of the element
284and a dictionnary containing the attributes carried by this element.</p>
285<p>Also note that the reference string generated from the callback shows a
286single character call even though the string &quot;bar&quot; is passed to the parser
287from 2 different call to parseChunk()</p>
288<h3>xpath.py:</h3>
289<p>This is a basic test of XPath warppers support</p>
Daniel Veillard9eb146b2002-02-21 16:04:51 +0000290<pre>import libxml2
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000291
292doc = libxml2.parseFile(&quot;tst.xml&quot;)
293ctxt = doc.xpathNewContext()
294res = ctxt.xpathEval(&quot;//*&quot;)
295if len(res) != 2:
296 print &quot;xpath query: wrong node set size&quot;
297 sys.exit(1)
298if res[0].name != &quot;doc&quot; or res[1].name != &quot;foo&quot;:
299 print &quot;xpath query: wrong node set value&quot;
300 sys.exit(1)
301doc.freeDoc()
Daniel Veillard9eb146b2002-02-21 16:04:51 +0000302ctxt.xpathFreeContext()</pre>
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000303<p>This test parses a file, then create an XPath context to evaluate XPath
304expression on it. The xpathEval() method execute an XPath query and returns
305the result mapped in a Python way. String and numbers are natively converted,
306and node sets are returned as a tuple of libxml2 Python nodes wrappers. Like
307the document, the XPath context need to be freed explicitely, also not that
308the result of the XPath query may point back to the document tree and hence
309the document must be freed after the result of the query is used.</p>
310<h3>xpathext.py:</h3>
311<p>This test shows how to extend the XPath engine with functions written in
312python:</p>
Daniel Veillard9eb146b2002-02-21 16:04:51 +0000313<pre>import libxml2
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000314
315def foo(ctx, x):
316 return x + 1
317
318doc = libxml2.parseFile(&quot;tst.xml&quot;)
319ctxt = doc.xpathNewContext()
320libxml2.registerXPathFunction(ctxt._o, &quot;foo&quot;, None, foo)
321res = ctxt.xpathEval(&quot;foo(1)&quot;)
322if res != 2:
323 print &quot;xpath extension failure&quot;
324doc.freeDoc()
Daniel Veillard9eb146b2002-02-21 16:04:51 +0000325ctxt.xpathFreeContext()</pre>
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000326<p>Note how the extension function is registered with the context (but that
327part is not yet finalized, ths may change slightly in the future).</p>
328<h3>tstxpath.py:</h3>
329<p>This test is similar to the previousone but shows how the extension
330function can access the XPath evaluation context:</p>
Daniel Veillard9eb146b2002-02-21 16:04:51 +0000331<pre>def foo(ctx, x):
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000332 global called
333
334 #
335 # test that access to the XPath evaluation contexts
336 #
337 pctxt = libxml2.xpathParserContext(_obj=ctx)
338 ctxt = pctxt.context()
339 called = ctxt.function()
Daniel Veillard9eb146b2002-02-21 16:04:51 +0000340 return x + 1</pre>
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000341<p>All the interfaces around the XPath parser(or rather evaluation) context
342are not finalized, but it should be sufficient to do contextual work at the
343evaluation point.</p>
344<h3>Memory debugging:</h3>
345<p>last but not least, all tests starts with the following prologue:</p>
Daniel Veillard9eb146b2002-02-21 16:04:51 +0000346<pre>#memory debug specific
Daniel Veillardaf43f632002-03-08 15:05:20 +0000347libxml2.debugMemory(1)</pre>
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000348<p>and ends with the following epilogue:</p>
Daniel Veillard9eb146b2002-02-21 16:04:51 +0000349<pre>#memory debug specific
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000350libxml2.cleanupParser()
351if libxml2.debugMemory(1) == 0:
352 print &quot;OK&quot;
353else:
354 print &quot;Memory leak %d bytes&quot; % (libxml2.debugMemory(1))
Daniel Veillard9eb146b2002-02-21 16:04:51 +0000355 libxml2.dumpMemory()</pre>
Daniel Veillard6dbcaf82002-02-20 14:37:47 +0000356<p>Those activate the memory debugging interface of libxml2 where all
357alloacted block in the library are tracked. The prologue then cleans up the
358library state and checks that all allocated memory has been freed. If not it
359calls dumpMemory() which saves that list in a <code>.memdump</code> file.</p>
360<p><a href="bugs.html">Daniel Veillard</a></p>
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