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📛 NAME

Data::DumpXML — Dump arbitrary data structures as XML

🚀 Quick Reference

Use Case	Command	Description
🔧 Basic dump	$xml = dump_xml(@data)	Serialize any Perl data structure to XML
🖨️ Dump to STDERR	dump_xml(@data)	Void context — prints XML to STDERR automatically
📏 Control indent	local $Data::DumpXML::INDENT = " "	Set whitespace per nesting level (default: one space)
🗜️ Compact output	local $Data::DumpXML::INDENT_STYLE = "Lisp"	Prevents newlines before end tags
🚫 No XML decl	local $Data::DumpXML::XML_DECL = 0	Suppress the <?xml ...?> declaration
🌐 No namespace	local $Data::DumpXML::NAMESPACE = ""	Disable XML namespace usage
📄 No DTD	local $Data::DumpXML::DTD_LOCATION = ""	Suppress <!DOCTYPE ...> line
🔄 Restore data	use Data::DumpXML::Parser	Parse dumped XML back into Perl structures

📋 SYNOPSIS

use Data::DumpXML qw(dump_xml);
$xml = dump_xml(@list);

📖 DESCRIPTION

This module provides a single function called dump_xml() that takes a list of Perl values as its argument and produces a string as its result. The string returned is an XML document that represents any Perl data structures passed to the function. Reference loops are handled correctly. 🔄

📊 The following data model is used:

data : scalar*
scalar = undef | str | ref | alias
ref : scalar | array | hash | glob | code
array: scalar*
hash: (key scalar)*

The distribution comes with an XML schema and a DTD that more formally describe this structure. 📐

As an example of the XML documents produced, the following call: 📝

$a = bless [1,2], "Foo";
dump_xml($a);

produces:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="US-ASCII"?>
<data xmlns="http://www.cpan.org/.../Data-DumpXML.xsd">
 <ref>
  <array class="Foo">
   <str>1</str>
   <str>2</str>
  </array>
 </ref>
</data>

If dump_xml() is called in a void context, then the dump is printed on STDERR automatically. 🖨️ For compatibility with Data::Dump, there is also an alias for dump_xml() called simply dump().

Data::DumpXML::Parser is a class that can restore data structures dumped by dump_xml(). 🔄

⚙️ Configuration variables

The generated XML is influenced by a set of configuration variables. If you modify them, then it is a good idea to localize the effect. For example: 🎯

sub my_dump_xml {
    local $Data::DumpXML::INDENT = "";
    local $Data::DumpXML::XML_DECL = 0;
    local $Data::DumpXML::DTD_LOCATION = "";
    local $Data::DumpXML::NS_PREFIX = "dumpxml";

    return dump_xml(@_);
}

The variables are:

$Data::DumpXML::INDENT 📏 You can set the variable $Data::DumpXML::INDENT to control the amount of indenting. The variable contains the whitespace you want to be used for each level of indenting. The default is a single space. To suppress indenting, set it to "". $Data::DumpXML::INDENT_STYLE 🗜️ This variable controls where end elements are placed. If you set this variable to the value "Lisp" then end tags are not prefixed by NL. This gives a more compact output. $Data::DumpXML::XML_DECL 📄 This boolean variable controls whether an XML declaration should be prefixed to the output. The XML declaration is the <?xml ...?> thingy. The default is 1. Set this value to 0 to suppress the declaration. $Data::DumpXML::NAMESPACE 🌐 This variable contains the namespace used for the XML elements. The default is to let this be a URI that actually resolves to the XML schema on CPAN. Set it to "" to disable use of namespaces. $Data::DumpXML::NS_PREFIX 🏷️ This variable contains the namespace prefix to use on the elements. The default is "", which means that a default namespace will be declared. $Data::DumpXML::SCHEMA_LOCATION 📍 This variable contains the location of the XML schema. If this variable is non-empty, then an xsi:schemaLocation attribute is added to the top level data element. The default is not to include this, as the location can be inferred from the default XML namespace used. $Data::DumpXML::DTD_LOCATION 📐 This variable contains the location of the DTD. If this variable is non-empty, then a <!DOCTYPE ...> is included in the output. The default is to point to the DTD on CPAN. Set it to "" to suppress the <!DOCTYPE ...> line.

🐛 BUGS

• 🔤 Class names with 8-bit characters are dumped as Latin-1, but converted to UTF-8 when restored by the Data::DumpXML::Parser.
• 🧹 The content of globs and subroutines are not dumped. They are restored as the strings "** glob **" and "** code **".
• ⚠️ LVALUE and IO objects are not dumped at all. They simply disappear from the restored data structure.

🔗 SEE ALSO

Data::DumpXML::Parser, XML::Parser, XML::Dumper, Data::Dump

👤 AUTHORS

The Data::DumpXML module is written by Gisle Aas <gisle AT aas.no>, based on Data::Dump. ✍️

The Data::Dump module was written by Gisle Aas, based on Data::Dumper by Gurusamy Sarathy <gsar AT umich.edu>.

📜 Copyright 1998-2003 Gisle Aas.
📜 Copyright 1996-1998 Gurusamy Sarathy.

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

📛 NAME 🚀 Quick Reference 📋 SYNOPSIS 📖 DESCRIPTION 🐛 BUGS 🔗 SEE ALSO 👤 AUTHORS