phpman > perldoc > Data::DumpXML(3pm)

NAME
    Data::DumpXML - Dump arbitrary data structures as XML

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 element are placed. If you set this variable to the value
        "Lisp" then end tags are not prefixed by NL. This give 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 resolve 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.