NAME

XML::Hash::XS - Simple and fast hash to XML and XML to hash conversion written in C

CPAN version

SYNOPSIS

    use XML::Hash::XS;

    my $xmlstr = hash2xml \%hash;
    hash2xml \%hash, output => $fh;

    my $hash = xml2hash $xmlstr;
    my $hash = xml2hash \$xmlstr;
    my $hash = xml2hash 'test.xml', encoding => 'cp1251';
    my $hash = xml2hash $fh;
    my $hash = xml2hash *STDIN;

Or OOP way:

    use XML::Hash::XS qw();

    my $conv   = XML::Hash::XS->new(utf8 => 0, encoding => 'utf-8')
    my $xmlstr = $conv->hash2xml(\%hash, utf8 => 1);
    my $hash   = $conv->xml2hash($xmlstr, encoding => 'cp1251');

DESCRIPTION

This module implements simple hash to XML and XML to hash conversion written in C.

During conversion uses minimum of memory, XML or hash is written directly without building DOM.

Some features are optional and are available with appropriate libraries:

  • XML::LibXML library is required in order to build DOM

  • ICU or iconv library is required in order to perform charset conversions

FUNCTIONS

hash2xml $hash, [ %options ]

$hash is reference to hash

    hash2xml
        {
            node1 => 'value1',
            node2 => [ 'value21', { node22 => 'value22' } ],
            node3 => \'value3',
            node4 => sub { return 'value4' },
            node5 => sub { return { node51 => 'value51' } },
        },
        canonical => 1,
        indent    => 2,
    ;

will convert to:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <root>
      <node1>value1</node1>
      <node2>value21</node2>
      <node2>
        <node22>value22</node22>
      </node2>
      <node3>value3</node3>
      <node4>value4</node4>
      <node5>
        <node51>value51</node51>
      </node5>
    </root>

and (use_attr=1):

    hash2xml
        {
            node1 => 'value1',
            node2 => [ 'value21', { node22 => 'value22' } ],
            node3 => \'value3',
            node4 => sub { return 'value4' },
            node5 => sub { return { node51 => 'value51' } },
        },
        use_attr  => 1,
        canonical => 1,
        indent    => 2,
    ;

will convert to:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <root node1="value1" node3="value3" node4="value4">
      <node2>value21</node2>
      <node2 node22="value22"/>
      <node5 node51="value51"/>
    </root>

xml2hash $xml, [ %options ]

$xml may be string, reference to string, file handle or tied file handle:

    xml2hash '<root>text</root>';
    # output: 'text'

    xml2hash '<root a="1" b="2">text</root>';
    # output: { a => '1', b => '2', content => 'text' }

    open(my $fh, '<', 'test.xml');
    xml2hash $fh;

    xml2hash *STDIN;

OPTIONS

doc [ => 0 ] # hash2xml

if doc is '1', then returned value is XML::LibXML::Document.

root [ = 'root' ] # hash2xml

Root node name.

version [ = '1.0' ] # hash2xml

XML document version

encoding [ = 'utf-8' ] # hash2xml+xml2hash

XML input/output encoding

indent [ = 0 ] # hash2xml

if indent great than "0", XML output should be indented according to its hierarchic structure. This value determines the number of spaces.

if indent is "0", XML output will all be on one line.

output [ = undef ] # hash2xml

XML output method

if output is undefined, XML document dumped into string.

if output is FH, XML document writes directly to a filehandle or a stream.

canonical [ = 0 ] # hash2xml

if canonical is "1", converter will be write hashes sorted by key.

if canonical is "0", order of the element will be pseudo-randomly.

use_attr [ = 0 ] # hash2xml

if use_attr is "1", converter will be use the attributes.

if use_attr is "0", converter will be use tags only.

content [ = undef ] # hash2xml+xml2hash

if defined that the key name for the text content(used only if use_attr=1).

force_array => [ = undef ] # xml2hash

This option is similar to "ForceArray" from XML::Simple module: https://metacpan.org/pod/XML::Simple#ForceArray-=%3E-1-%23-in-important.

force_content => [ = 0 ] # xml2hash

This option is similar to "ForceContent" from XML::Simple module: https://metacpan.org/pod/XML::Simple#ForceContent-=%3E-1-%23-in-seldom-used.

merge_text [ = 0 ] # xml2hash

Setting this option to "1" will cause merge adjacent text nodes.

xml_decl [ = 1 ] # hash2xml

if xml_decl is "1", output will start with the XML declaration '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>'.

if xml_decl is "0", XML declaration will not be output.

trim [ = 0 ] # hash2xml+xml2hash

Trim leading and trailing whitespace from text nodes.

suppress_empty => [ = 0 ] # xml2hash

This option is similar to "SuppressEmpty" from XMl::Simple module: https://metacpan.org/pod/XML::Simple#SuppressEmpty-=%3E-1-%7C-''-%7C-undef-%23-in+out-handy.

utf8 [ = 1 ] # hash2xml+xml2hash

Turn on utf8 flag for strings if enabled.

max_depth [ = 1024 ] # xml2hash

Maximum recursion depth.

buf_size [ = 4096 ] # hash2xml+xml2hash

Buffer size for reading end encoding data.

keep_root [ = 0 ] # xml2hash

Keep root element.

filter [ = undef ] # xml2hash

Filter nodes matched by pattern and return reference to array of nodes.

Sample:

    my $xml = <<'XML';
        <root>
           <item1>111</item1>
           <item2>222</item2>
           <item3>333</item3>
        </root>
    XML

    my $nodes = xml2hash($xml, filter => '/root/item1');
    # $nodes = [ 111 ]

    my $nodes = xml2hash($xml, filter => ['/root/item1', '/root/item2']);
    # $nodes = [ 111, 222 ]

    my $nodes = xml2hash($xml, filter => qr[/root/item\d$]);
    # $nodes = [ 111, 222, 333 ]

It may be used to parse large XML because does not require a lot of memory.

cb [ = undef ] # xml2hash

This option is used in conjunction with "filter" option and defines callback that will called for each matched node.

Sample:

    xml2hash($xml, filter => qr[/root/item\d$], cb => sub {
        print $_[0], "\n";
    });
    # 111
    # 222
    # 333
method [ = 'NATIVE' ] # hash2xml

experimental support the conversion methods other libraries

if method is 'LX' then conversion result is the same as using XML::Hash::LX library

Note: for 'LX' method following additional options are available: attr cdata text comm

OBJECT SERIALISATION(hash2xml)

1. When object has a "toString" method

In this case, the <toString> method of object is invoked in scalar context. It must return a single scalar that can be directly encoded into XML.

Example:

    use XML::LibXML;
    local $XML::LibXML::skipXMLDeclaration = 1;
    my $doc = XML::LibXML->new->parse_string('<foo bar="1"/>');
    print hash2xml({ doc => $doc }, indent => 2, xml_decl => 0);
    =>
    <root>
      <doc><foo bar="1"/></doc>
    </root>
2. When object has overloaded stringification

In this case, the stringification method of object is invoked and result is directly encoded into XML.

Example:

    package Test {
        use overload '""' => sub { shift->stringify }, fallback => 1;
        sub new {
            my ($class, $str) = @_;
            bless { str => $str }, $class;
        }
        sub stringify {
            shift->{str}
        }
    }
    my $obj = Test->new('test string');
    print hash2xml({ obj => $obj }, indent => 2, xml_decl => 0);
    =>
    <root>
      <obj>test string</obj>
    </root>
3. When object has a "iternext" method ("NATIVE" method only)

In this case, the <iternext> method method will invoke a few times until the return value is not undefined.

Example:

    my $count = 0;
    my $o = bless {}, 'Iterator';
    *Iterator::iternext = sub { $count++ < 3 ? { count => $count } : undef };
    print hash2xml({ item => $o }, use_attr => 1, indent => 2, xml_decl => 0);
    =>
    <root>
      <item count="1"/>
      <item count="2"/>
      <item count="3"/>
    </root>

This can be used to generate a large XML using minimum memory, example with DBI:

    my $sth = $dbh->prepare('SELECT * FROM foo WHERE bar=?');
    $sth->execute(...);
    my $o = bless {}, 'Iterator';
    *Iterator::iternext = sub { $sth->fetchrow_hashref() };
    open(my $fh, '>', 'data.xml');
    hash2xml({ row => $o }, use_attr => 1, indent => 2, xml_decl => 0, output => $fh);
    =>
    <root>
      <row bar="..." ... />
      <row bar="..." ... />
      ...
    </root>

BENCHMARK

Performance benchmark in comparison with some popular modules(hash2xml):

                    Rate     XML::Hash XML::Hash::LX   XML::Simple XML::Hash::XS
    XML::Hash     65.0/s            --           -6%          -37%          -99%
    XML::Hash::LX 68.8/s            6%            --          -33%          -99%
    XML::Simple    103/s           58%           49%            --          -98%
    XML::Hash::XS 4879/s         7404%         6988%         4658%            --

Benchmark was done on http://search.cpan.org/uploads.rdf

AUTHOR

Yuriy Ustushenko, <yoreek@yahoo.com>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright (C) 2012-2021 Yuriy Ustushenko

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.