# XML::PatAct::Amsterdam - phpMan

## NAME
    [XML::PatAct::Amsterdam] - An action module for simplistic style-sheets

## SYNOPSIS
     use [XML::PatAct::Amsterdam];

     my $patterns = [ PATTERN => { Before => 'before',
                                   After => 'after' },
                      ... ];

     my $matcher = [XML::PatAct::Amsterdam]->new( I<OPTIONS> );

## DESCRIPTION
    [XML::PatAct::Amsterdam] is a PerlSAX handler for applying pattern-action
    lists to XML parses or trees. [XML::PatAct::Amsterdam] applies a very
    simple style sheet to an instance and outputs the result. Amsterdam gets
    it's name from the Amsterdam SGML Parser (ASP) which inspired this
    module.

    CAUTION: Amsterdam is a very simple style module, you will run into it's
    limitations quickly with even moderately complex XML instances, be aware
    of and prepared to switch to more complete style modules.

    New [XML::PatAct::Amsterdam] instances are creating by calling `new()'.
    Parameters can be passed as a list of key, value pairs or a hash. A
    Patterns and Matcher options are required. The following *OPTIONS* are
    supported:

    Patterns
        The pattern-action list to apply. The list is an anonymous array of
        pattern, action pairs. Each action in the list contains either or
        both a Before and an After string to copy to the output before and
        after processing an XML element. The Before and After strings may
        contain attribute names enclosed in square brackets (`"["' *NAME*
        `"]"'), these are replaced with the value of the attribute with that
        name. The special *NAME* `"_element"' will be replaced with the
        element's name.

    Matcher
        An instance of the pattern or query matching module.

    Output
        An [IO::Handle] or one of it's subclasses (such as [IO::File]), if this
        parameter is not present and the AsString option is not used, the
        module will write to standard output.

    AsString
        Return the generated output as a string from the `"parse()"' method
        of the PerlSAX event generator.

## AUTHOR
    Ken MacLeod, <ken@bitsko.slc.ut.us>

## SEE ALSO
    [perl(1)]

    ``Using PatAct Modules'' and ``Creating PatAct Modules'' in libxml-perl.