doc.go raw

   1  // mxj - A collection of map[string]interface{} and associated XML and JSON utilities.
   2  // Copyright 2012-2019, Charles Banning. All rights reserved.
   3  // Use of this source code is governed by a MIT-style
   4  // license that can be found in the LICENSE file
   5  
   6  /*
   7  Marshal/Unmarshal XML to/from map[string]interface{} values (and JSON); extract/modify values from maps by key or key-path, including wildcards.
   8  
   9  mxj supplants the legacy x2j and j2x packages. The subpackage x2j-wrapper is provided to facilitate migrating from the x2j package.  The x2j and j2x subpackages provide similar functionality of the old packages but are not function-name compatible with them.
  10  
  11  Note: this library was designed for processing ad hoc anonymous messages.  Bulk processing large data sets may be much more efficiently performed using the encoding/xml or encoding/json packages from Go's standard library directly.
  12  
  13  Related Packages:
  14  	checkxml: github.com/clbanning/checkxml provides functions for validating XML data.
  15  
  16  Notes:
  17  	2022.11.28: v2.7 - add SetGlobalKeyMapPrefix to change default prefix, '#', for default keys
  18  	2022.11.20: v2.6 - add NewMapForattedXmlSeq for XML docs formatted with whitespace character
  19  	2021.02.02: v2.5 - add XmlCheckIsValid toggle to force checking that the encoded XML is valid
  20  	2020.12.14: v2.4 - add XMLEscapeCharsDecoder to preserve XML escaped characters in Map values
  21  	2020.10.28: v2.3 - add TrimWhiteSpace option
  22  	2020.05.01: v2.2 - optimize map to XML encoding for large XML docs.
  23  	2019.07.04: v2.0 - remove unnecessary methods - mv.XmlWriterRaw, mv.XmlIndentWriterRaw - for Map and MapSeq.
  24  	2019.07.04: Add MapSeq type and move associated functions and methods from Map to MapSeq.
  25  	2019.01.21: DecodeSimpleValuesAsMap - decode to map[<tag>:map["#text":<value>]] rather than map[<tag>:<value>].
  26  	2018.04.18: mv.Xml/mv.XmlIndent encodes non-map[string]interface{} map values - map[string]string, map[int]uint, etc.
  27  	2018.03.29: mv.Gob/NewMapGob support gob encoding/decoding of Maps.
  28  	2018.03.26: Added mxj/x2j-wrapper sub-package for migrating from legacy x2j package.
  29  	2017.02.22: LeafNode paths can use ".N" syntax rather than "[N]" for list member indexing.
  30  	2017.02.21: github.com/clbanning/checkxml provides functions for validating XML data.
  31  	2017.02.10: SetFieldSeparator changes field separator for args in UpdateValuesForPath, ValuesFor... methods.
  32  	2017.02.06: Support XMPP stream processing - HandleXMPPStreamTag().
  33  	2016.11.07: Preserve name space prefix syntax in XmlSeq parser - NewMapXmlSeq(), etc.
  34  	2016.06.25: Support overriding default XML attribute prefix, "-", in Map keys - SetAttrPrefix().
  35  	2016.05.26: Support customization of xml.Decoder by exposing CustomDecoder variable.
  36  	2016.03.19: Escape invalid chars when encoding XML attribute and element values - XMLEscapeChars().
  37  	2016.03.02: By default decoding XML with float64 and bool value casting will not cast "NaN", "Inf", and "-Inf".
  38  	            To cast them to float64, first set flag with CastNanInf(true).
  39  	2016.02.22: New mv.Root(), mv.Elements(), mv.Attributes methods let you examine XML document structure.
  40  	2016.02.16: Add CoerceKeysToLower() option to handle tags with mixed capitalization.
  41  	2016.02.12: Seek for first xml.StartElement token; only return error if io.EOF is reached first (handles BOM).
  42  	2015-12-02: NewMapXmlSeq() with mv.XmlSeq() & co. will try to preserve structure of XML doc when re-encoding.
  43  	2014-08-02: AnyXml() and AnyXmlIndent() will try to marshal arbitrary values to XML.
  44  
  45  SUMMARY
  46  
  47     type Map map[string]interface{}
  48  
  49     Create a Map value, 'mv', from any map[string]interface{} value, 'v':
  50        mv := Map(v)
  51  
  52     Unmarshal / marshal XML as a Map value, 'mv':
  53        mv, err := NewMapXml(xmlValue) // unmarshal
  54        xmlValue, err := mv.Xml()      // marshal
  55  
  56     Unmarshal XML from an io.Reader as a Map value, 'mv':
  57        mv, err := NewMapXmlReader(xmlReader)         // repeated calls, as with an os.File Reader, will process stream
  58        mv, raw, err := NewMapXmlReaderRaw(xmlReader) // 'raw' is the raw XML that was decoded
  59  
  60     Marshal Map value, 'mv', to an XML Writer (io.Writer):
  61        err := mv.XmlWriter(xmlWriter)
  62        raw, err := mv.XmlWriterRaw(xmlWriter) // 'raw' is the raw XML that was written on xmlWriter
  63  
  64     Also, for prettified output:
  65        xmlValue, err := mv.XmlIndent(prefix, indent, ...)
  66        err := mv.XmlIndentWriter(xmlWriter, prefix, indent, ...)
  67        raw, err := mv.XmlIndentWriterRaw(xmlWriter, prefix, indent, ...)
  68  
  69     Bulk process XML with error handling (note: handlers must return a boolean value):
  70        err := HandleXmlReader(xmlReader, mapHandler(Map), errHandler(error))
  71        err := HandleXmlReaderRaw(xmlReader, mapHandler(Map, []byte), errHandler(error, []byte))
  72  
  73     Converting XML to JSON: see Examples for NewMapXml and HandleXmlReader.
  74  
  75     There are comparable functions and methods for JSON processing.
  76  
  77     Arbitrary structure values can be decoded to / encoded from Map values:
  78        mv, err := NewMapStruct(structVal)
  79        err := mv.Struct(structPointer)
  80  
  81     To work with XML tag values, JSON or Map key values or structure field values, decode the XML, JSON
  82     or structure to a Map value, 'mv', or cast a map[string]interface{} value to a Map value, 'mv', then:
  83        paths := mv.PathsForKey(key)
  84        path := mv.PathForKeyShortest(key)
  85        values, err := mv.ValuesForKey(key, subkeys)
  86        values, err := mv.ValuesForPath(path, subkeys) // 'path' can be dot-notation with wildcards and indexed arrays.
  87        count, err := mv.UpdateValuesForPath(newVal, path, subkeys)
  88  
  89     Get everything at once, irrespective of path depth:
  90        leafnodes := mv.LeafNodes()
  91        leafvalues := mv.LeafValues()
  92  
  93     A new Map with whatever keys are desired can be created from the current Map and then encoded in XML
  94     or JSON. (Note: keys can use dot-notation. 'oldKey' can also use wildcards and indexed arrays.)
  95        newMap, err := mv.NewMap("oldKey_1:newKey_1", "oldKey_2:newKey_2", ..., "oldKey_N:newKey_N")
  96        newMap, err := mv.NewMap("oldKey1", "oldKey3", "oldKey5") // a subset of 'mv'; see "examples/partial.go"
  97        newXml, err := newMap.Xml()   // for example
  98        newJson, err := newMap.Json() // ditto
  99  
 100  XML PARSING CONVENTIONS
 101  
 102     Using NewMapXml()
 103  
 104     - Attributes are parsed to `map[string]interface{}` values by prefixing a hyphen, `-`,
 105       to the attribute label. (Unless overridden by `PrependAttrWithHyphen(false)` or
 106       `SetAttrPrefix()`.)
 107     - If the element is a simple element and has attributes, the element value
 108       is given the key `#text` for its `map[string]interface{}` representation.  (See
 109       the 'atomFeedString.xml' test data, below.)
 110     - XML comments, directives, and process instructions are ignored.
 111     - If CoerceKeysToLower() has been called, then the resultant keys will be lower case.
 112  
 113     Using NewMapXmlSeq()
 114  
 115     - Attributes are parsed to `map["#attr"]map[<attr_label>]map[string]interface{}`values
 116       where the `<attr_label>` value has "#text" and "#seq" keys - the "#text" key holds the 
 117       value for `<attr_label>`.
 118     - All elements, except for the root, have a "#seq" key.
 119     - Comments, directives, and process instructions are unmarshalled into the Map using the
 120       keys "#comment", "#directive", and "#procinst", respectively. (See documentation for more
 121       specifics.)
 122     - Name space syntax is preserved: 
 123        - <ns:key>something</ns.key> parses to map["ns:key"]interface{}{"something"}
 124        - xmlns:ns="http://myns.com/ns" parses to map["xmlns:ns"]interface{}{"http://myns.com/ns"}
 125  
 126     Both
 127  
 128     - By default, "Nan", "Inf", and "-Inf" values are not cast to float64.  If you want them
 129       to be cast, set a flag to cast them  using CastNanInf(true).
 130  
 131  XML ENCODING CONVENTIONS
 132     
 133     - 'nil' Map values, which may represent 'null' JSON values, are encoded as "<tag/>".
 134       NOTE: the operation is not symmetric as "<tag/>" elements are decoded as 'tag:""' Map values,
 135             which, then, encode in JSON as '"tag":""' values..
 136     - ALSO: there is no guarantee that the encoded XML doc will be the same as the decoded one.  (Go
 137             randomizes the walk through map[string]interface{} values.) If you plan to re-encode the
 138             Map value to XML and want the same sequencing of elements look at NewMapXmlSeq() and
 139             mv.XmlSeq() - these try to preserve the element sequencing but with added complexity when
 140             working with the Map representation.
 141  
 142  */
 143  package mxj
 144