Mini-XML Version 3.2

Mini-XML is a small XML parsing library that you can use to read XML data files or strings in your application without requiring large non-standard libraries. Mini-XML only requires a "make" program and an ANSI C compatible compiler - GCC works, as do most vendors' ANSI C compilers.

Mini-XML provides the following functionality:

• Reading of UTF-8 and UTF-16 and writing of UTF-8 encoded XML files and strings.
• Data is stored in a linked-list tree structure, preserving the XML data hierarchy.
• SAX (streamed) reading of XML files and strings to minimize memory usage.
• Supports arbitrary element names, attributes, and attribute values with no preset limits, just available memory.
• Supports integer, real, opaque ("cdata"), and text data types in "leaf" nodes.
• Functions for creating and managing trees of data.
• "Find" and "walk" functions for easily locating and navigating trees of data.

Mini-XML doesn't do validation or other types of processing on the data based upon schema files or other sources of definition information.

Note: Version 3.0 hides the definition of the

mxml_node_t

structure, requiring the use of the various accessor functions that were introduced in version 2.0.

Building Mini-XML

Mini-XML comes with an autoconf-based configure script; just type the following command to get things going:

./configure

The default install prefix is

/usr/local

--prefix

./configure --prefix=/foo

Other configure options can be found using the

--help

./configure --help

Once you have configured the software, type

make

make

If you are using Mini-XML under Microsoft Windows with Visual C++, use the included project files in the

vcnet

Installing Mini-XML

The

install

make install

Once you have installed it, use the

-lmxml

Documentation

The documentation is available in the

doc

mxml.html

mxml.epub

testmxml.c

Mini-XML provides a single header file which you include:

#include 

Nodes (elements, comments, processing directives, integers, opaque strings, real numbers, and text strings) are represented by

mxml_node_t

mxmlNewElement()

mxmlNewInteger()

mxmlNewOpaque()

mxmlNewReal()

mxmlNewText()

You load an XML file using the

mxmlLoadFile()

FILE *fp;
mxml_node_t *tree;

fp = fopen("filename.xml", "r");
tree = mxmlLoadFile(NULL, fp, MXML_OPAQUE_CALLBACK);
fclose(fp);

Similarly, you save an XML file using the

mxmlSaveFile()

FILE *fp;
mxml_node_t *tree;

fp = fopen("filename.xml", "w");
mxmlSaveFile(tree, fp, MXML_NO_CALLBACK);
fclose(fp);

The

mxmlLoadString()

mxmlSaveAllocString()

mxmlSaveString()

char buffer[8192];
char *ptr;
mxml_node_t *tree;

...
tree = mxmlLoadString(NULL, buffer, MXML_OPAQUE_CALLBACK);
...
mxmlSaveString(tree, buffer, sizeof(buffer), MXML_NO_CALLBACK);
...
ptr = mxmlSaveAllocString(tree, MXML_NO_CALLBACK);

You can find a named element/node using the

mxmlFindElement()

mxml_node_t *node = mxmlFindElement(tree, tree, "name", "attr",
                "value", MXML_DESCEND);

The

name

attr

value

NULL

/* Find the first "a" element */
node = mxmlFindElement(tree, tree, "a", NULL, NULL, MXML_DESCEND);

/* Find the first "a" element with "href" attribute */
node = mxmlFindElement(tree, tree, "a", "href", NULL, MXML_DESCEND);
/* Find the first "a" element with "href" to a URL */
node = mxmlFindElement(tree, tree, "a", "href",
           "http://www.minixml.org/",
           MXML_DESCEND);
/* Find the first element with a "src" attribute*/
node = mxmlFindElement(tree, tree, NULL, "src", NULL, MXML_DESCEND);
/* Find the first element with a "src" = "foo.jpg" */
node = mxmlFindElement(tree, tree, NULL, "src", "foo.jpg",
           MXML_DESCEND);

You can also iterate with the same function:

mxml_node_t *node;

for (node = mxmlFindElement(tree, tree, "name", NULL, NULL,
            MXML_DESCEND);
 node != NULL;
 node = mxmlFindElement(node, tree, "name", NULL, NULL,
            MXML_DESCEND))
{
  ... do something ...
}

The

mxmlFindPath()

mxml_node_t *value = mxmlFindPath(tree, "path/to/*/foo/bar");

The

mxmlGetInteger()

mxmlGetOpaque()

mxmlGetReal()

mxmlGetText()

mxml_node_t *node;

int intvalue = mxmlGetInteger(node);
const char *opaquevalue = mxmlGetOpaque(node);
double realvalue = mxmlGetReal(node);
int whitespacevalue;
const char *textvalue = mxmlGetText(node, &whitespacevalue);

Finally, once you are done with the XML data, use the

mxmlDelete()

mxmlDelete(tree);

Getting Help And Reporting Problems

The Mini-XML project page provides access to the current version of this software, documentation, and Github issue tracking page.

Legal Stuff

Copyright © 2003-2020 by Michael R Sweet

The Mini-XML library is licensed under the Apache License Version 2.0 with an optional exception to allow linking against GPL2/LGPL2-only software. See the files "LICENSE" and "NOTICE" for more information.

Note: The exception listed in the NOTICE file only applies when linking against GPL2/LGPL2-only software. Some Apache License purists have objected to linking Apache Licensed code against Mini-XML with these exceptions on the grounds that it makes Mini-XML somehow incompatible with the Apache License. For that reason, people wishing to retain their Apache License purity may omit the exception from their copy of Mini-XML.

Note 2: IANAL, but I am beginning to dislike them!