- xml_parse(?Chars, ?Document)
- Parse or generate XML documents
- xml_parse(+Controls, ?Chars, ?Document)
- Parse or generate XML documents
- xml_pp(+XMLDocument)
- Pretty-prints XMLDocument on the current output stream
- xml_subterm(+XMLTerm, ?Subterm)
- Unifies Subterm with a sub-term of Term.
This code creates and accepts character lists rather than ECLiPSe strings. To convert between character lists and (UTF8 or ASCII) strings, use the ECLiPSe built-in string_list/3. For example, to parse a UTF-8 encoded XML file, use the following code:
xml_parse_file(File, Document) :- open(File, read, Stream), read_string(Stream, end_of_file, _, Utf8String), close(Stream), string_list(Utf8String, Chars, utf8), xml_parse(Chars, Document).
This is Revision 2.0 of John Fletcher's code. Most of the subsequent text is taken literally from http://www.binding-time.co.uk/xmlpl.html.
This program is offered free of charge, as unsupported source code. You may use it, copy it, distribute it, modify it or sell it without restriction, but entirely at your own risk.
We hope that it will be useful to you, but it is provided "as is" without any warranty express or implied, including but not limited to the warranty of non-infringement and the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.
History: $Log: xml_comments.ecl,v $ Revision 1.4 2009/07/16 09:11:23 jschimpf Merged patches_6_0 branch up to merge_2009_07_16 Revision 1.3.2.2 2009/04/09 02:11:38 jschimpf Updated the url in documentation Revision 1.3.2.1 2009/02/19 06:26:40 jschimpf Added comment(categories,...) annotations for better documentation Revision 1.3 2006/10/17 22:06:22 jschimpf Reinserted lost licensing paragraph. Revision 1.2 2006/10/17 22:02:21 jschimpf Upgraded to John Fletcher's revision 2.0, released 2006/06/18, available at http://www.zen37763.zen.co.uk/xml_download.html Revision 1.1 2003/03/31 13:58:02 js10 Upgraded to latest version from John Fletcher's web site Revision 1.2 2002/03/26 22:56:55 js10 Added John Fletcher's public domain XML parser/generator Revision 1.1 2002/03/26 22:50:07 js10 Added John Fletcher's public domain XML parser/generator
xml.pl is a module for parsing XML with Prolog, which provides Prolog applications with a simple "Document Value Model" interface to XML documents. It has been used successfully in a number of applications.
It supports a subset of XML suitable for XML Data and Worldwide Web applications. It is not as strict nor as comprehensive as the XML 1.0 Specification mandates.
It is not as strict, because, while the specification must eliminate ambiguities, not all errors need to be regarded as faults, and some reasonable examples of real XML usage would have to be rejected if they were.
It is not as comprehensive, because, where the XML specification makes provision for more or less complete DTDs to be provided as part of a document, xml.pl actions the local definition of ENTITIES only. Other DTD extensions are treated as commentary.
The code, and a small Windows application which embodies it, has been placed into the public domain, to encourage the use of Prolog with XML.
I hope that they will be useful to you, but they are not supported, and they are provided without any warranty of any kind.
Three predicates are exported by the module: xml_parse/[2,3], xml_subterm/2 and xml_pp/1.
xml_parse( {+Controls}, +?Chars,
?+Document ) parses Chars, a list of character codes,
to/from a data structure of the form
xml(
<attributes>,
<content>)
, where:
<attributes> is a list of <name>= <char data> attributes from the (possibly implicit) XML signature of the document.
<content> is a (possibly empty) list comprising occurrences of :
pcdata(
<char data>)
comment(
<char data>)
namespace(
<URI>,
<prefix>,
<element>)
element(
<tag>,
<attributes>,
<content>)
instructions(
<name>,
<char data>)
cdata(
<char data>)
doctype(
<tag>,
<doctype id>)
The conversions are not completely
symmetrical, in that weaker XML is accepted than can be generated.
Specifically, in-bound (Chars ->
Document) parsing does not require strictly well-formed XML. If Chars does not represent well-formed
XML, Document is instantiated
to the term malformed(
<attributes>,
<content>)
.
The <content> of a malformed/2 structure can include:
unparsed(
<char data> )
out_of_context(
<tag> )
in addition to the parsed term types.
Out-bound (Document -> Chars) parsing does require that Document defines well-formed XML. If an error is detected a 'domain' exception is raised.
The domain exception will attempt to identify the particular sub-term in error and the message will show a list of its ancestor elements in the form <tag>{(id)}* where <id> is the value of any attribute named id.
At this release, the Controls applying to in-bound (Chars -> Document) parsing are:
extended_characters(
<bool>)
format(
<bool>)
remove_attribute_prefixes(
<bool>)
allow_ampersand(
<bool>)
For out-bound (Document -> Chars) parsing, the only available option is:
format(
<bool>)
public(
<char data>,
<char data>)
,
public(
<char data>,
<char data>,
<dtd literals>),
system(
<char data>),
system(
<char data>,
<dtd literals>),
local or local(
<dtd literals>)dtd_literal(
<char data>) terms - e.g. attribute-list
declarations.true
or falsexml_subterm( +XMLTerm, ?Subterm ) unifies Subterm with a sub-term of Term. This can be especially useful when trying to test or retrieve a deeply-nested subterm from a document - as demonstrated in this example program. Note that XMLTerm is a sub-term of itself.
xml_pp( +XMLDocument ) "pretty prints" XMLDocument on the current output stream.
The module is available from this site, and is supplied as a library with the following Prologs:
The xml/2 data structure has some useful properties.
Using an "abstract" Prolog representation of XML, in which terms represent document "nodes", makes the parser reuseable for any XML application.
In effect, xml.pl encapsulates the application-independent tasks of document parsing and generation, which is essential where documents have components from more than one Namespace.
The Prolog term representing a document has the same structure as the document itself, which makes the correspondence between the literal representation of the Prolog term and the XML source readily apparent.
For example, this simple SVG image:
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE svg PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD SVG 1.0//EN" "http://www.w3.org/.../svg10.dtd"
[
<!ENTITY redblue "fill: red; stroke: blue; stroke-width: 1">
]>
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="500" height="500">
<circle cx=" 25 " cy=" 25 " r=" 24 " style="&redblue;"/>
</svg>
... translates into this Prolog term:
xml( [version="1.0", standalone="no"],
[
doctype( svg, public( "-//W3C//DTD SVG 1.0//EN", "http://www.w3.org/.../svg10.dtd" ) ),
namespace( 'http://www.w3.org/2000/svg', "",
element( svg,
[width="500", height="500"],
[
element( circle,
[cx="25", cy="25", r="24", style="fill: red; stroke: blue; stroke-width: 1"],
[] )
] )
)
] ).
Each type of node in an XML document is represented by a different Prolog functor, while data, (PCDATA, CDATA and Attribute Values), are left as "strings", (lists of character codes).
The use of distinct functors for mark-up structures enables the efficient recursive traversal of a document, while leaving the data as strings facilitates application-specific parsing of data content (aka Micro-parsing).
For example, to turn every CDATA node into a PCDATA node with tabs expanded into spaces:
cdata_to_pcdata( cdata(CharsWithTabs), pcdata(CharsWithSpaces) ) :-
tab_expansion( CharsWithTabs, CharsWithSpaces ).
cdata_to_pcdata( xml(Attributes, Content1), xml(Attributes, Content2) ) :-
cdata_to_pcdata( Content1, Content2 ).
cdata_to_pcdata( namespace(URI,Prefix,Content1), namespace(URI,Prefix,Content2) ) :-
cdata_to_pcdata( Content1, Content2 ).
cdata_to_pcdata( element(Name,Attrs,Content1), element(Name,Attrs,Content2) ) :-
cdata_to_pcdata( Content1, Content2 ).
cdata_to_pcdata( [], [] ).
cdata_to_pcdata( [H1|T1], [H2|T2] ) :-
cdata_to_pcdata( H1, H2 ),
cdata_to_pcdata( T1, T2 ).
cdata_to_pcdata( pcdata(Chars), pcdata(Chars) ).
cdata_to_pcdata( comment(Chars), comment(Chars) ).
cdata_to_pcdata( instructions(Name, Chars), instructions(Name, Chars) ).
cdata_to_pcdata( doctype(Tag, DoctypeId), doctype(Tag, DoctypeId) ).
The above uses no 'cuts', but will not create any choice points with ground input.
The resolution of entity references and the decomposition of the document into distinct nodes means that the calling application is not concerned with the occasionally messy syntax of XML documents.
For example, the clean separation of namespace nodes means that Namespaces, which are useful in combining specifications developed separately, have similar usefulness in combining applications developed separately.
The source code is available here. Although it is unsupported, please feel free to e-mail queries and suggestions. I will respond as time allows.