yxml ~main

yxml

The yxml DUB package is a simple library that is designed to parse a subset of XML within the constraints of restricted D.

• Allows XML parsing in nothrow @nogc.
• One file, but depends on numem package for scoped DOM.
• The yxml parser from original is fast, however the DOM it constructs isn't particularly efficient. The original library was barebones and intended to be used as SAX parser. But this is a DOM-like API.

Limitations

Not all of XML is supported. The limitations are stronger than the original yxml library.

• Comments are ignored.
• XML Processing Instructions are ignored.
• Can't parse HTML.
• Can't emit XML.
• Not validating, no namespace support.

Usage

📈 Parsing a single value in a file

// EXAMPLE: the file has this shape.
// ------------------------------------------------
// <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
// <results>
//    <metric value="5.8" />
// </results>
// ------------------------------------------------
// Note: This example assumes you can use the GC for error reporting,
// but `yxml` doesn't strictly require it.
void parseMyXMLData(const(char)[] xmlData) 
{
    import yxml;

    // Parse a whole XML file, builds a DOM.
    XmlDocument doc;
    doc.parse(xmlData);

    // Parsing error is dealt with error codes.
    if (doc.isError)
    {
        const(char)[] message = doc.errorMessage;
        // ...do something with the error, 
        // such as throwing if you can:
        throw new Exception(message.idup);
    }

    XmlElement root = doc.root;

    if (root.tagName != "results")
        throw new Exception("expected <results> as root XML anchor");

    foreach(e; root.getChildrenByTagName("metric"))
    {
        if (!e.hasAttribute("value"))
            throw new Exception(`expected attribute "value" in <metric>`);
        return to!double(e.getAttribute("value")); // return first seen
    }
    throw new Exception("expected <metric>");
}

📈 Iterate children of a XmlElement

• childNodes return range that iterates on children, who are all XmlElement themselves.
• childElementCount return the number of children.

void parseCustomers(XmlElement parent)
{
    // Iterate on the child nodes of `parent`
    foreach(XmlElement node; parent.childNodes)
    {
        writeln(node.tagName);     // Display <tag> name.
        writeln(node.textContent); // Display its content and that of its children
    }
}

🧑‍💼 **Pro XML parsing tip:** Use `.dup` or `.idup` to make copies of tag names of text content, because the lifetime of the DOM is the one of the `XmlDocument`. You don't want your characters string to disappear over you, right?

📈 Find a child with given tag name

• Use XmlElement.firstChildByTagName(const(char)[] tagName) for first matching element.

void parseCustomer(XmlElement customer)
{
    XmlElement name = customer.firstChildByTagName("name");
    if (name is null)
        throw new Exception("<customer> has no <name>!");
}

🧑‍💼 **Pro XML parsing tip:** You can be even clearer in intent by using `.hasChildWithTagName`.

📈 Iterate children of a XmlElement by tag name

• getChildrenByTagName return range that iterates on direct children that match a given tag name, no recursion.

void parseSupportDeskFile(XmlElement parent)
{
    foreach(XmlElement customer; parent.getChildrenByTagName("customer"))
    {
        // Do something with customer
    }
}

🧑‍💼 **Pro XML parsing tip:** Use .array to get a slice rather than a range.

import std.array;
XmlElement[] elems = node.getChildrenByTagName("customer").array;
writeln("%s customers found.", elems.length);

📈 Get a single attribute

All these 3 examples are equivalent:

void parseCustomers(XmlElement node)
{
    // null if such an attribute doesn't exist
    const(char)[] blurb = node.getAttribute("blurb");
    if (!blurb)
        throw new Exception(`no "blurb" attribute!`);
}

void parseCustomers(XmlElement node)
{
    const(char)[] blurb = null;
    if (node.hasAttribute("blurb"))
    {
        XmlAttr attr = node.getAttributeNode("blurb");
        blurb = attr.value();
    }
    if (!blurb)
        throw new Exception(`no "blurb" attribute!`);
}

void parseCustomers(XmlElement node)
{
    const(char)[] blurb = null;

    // Iterate on all attributes
    foreach(attr; node.attributes())
    {
        if (attr.name == "blurb")
            blurb = attr.value;
    }
    if (!blurb)
        throw new Exception(`no "blurb" attribute!`);
}