Meta::Xml::Parsers::Collector - Object to collect full XML elements.

Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 Mark Veltzer; All rights reserved.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111, USA.

	MANIFEST: Collector.pm
	PROJECT: meta
	VERSION: 0.02

	package foo;
	use Meta::Xml::Parsers::Collector qw();
	my($parser)=Meta::Xml::Parsers::Collector->new();
	$parser->parsefile($file);

The orignal XML::Parser gives you character information bit by bit and there is no way to tell it to give you the whole content at a single instant. This parser is defined to make life easier for you to do that. All you need to do is: 1. inherit from this parser instead of XML::Parser. 2. override the handle_endchar method (just like any other handler override for XML::Parser) and the element you get there is the entire content.

A default handler for endchar is installed with this parser and does nothing.

Be aware that by inheriting from this parser you are assuming that all the char data in your XML files is small enough to fit easily in RAM. The XML::Parser is designed to do it's stuff the way it is for a reason (parsing xml files with very large binary data in them etc...). If this is your need you better use the original XML::Parser.

I do intend to make some extensions for this parser whereby you could say which elements you want to handle piece by piece and which it can just gallop down but this is currently unimplemented.

Take care to either not to override the handle_char method or to call your super class implementation of it because this parser does stuff in there too.

You don't HAVE to overrider the handle_endchar method. You can write your parser and grow with it. When you need it it will be there for you.

	new($)
	handle_start($$)
	handle_end($$)
	handle_char($$)
	handle_endchar($$$)
	TEST($)

new($)

This gives you a new parser object.

handle_start($$)

This will handle start tags. Currently it just null the string collected.

handle_end($$)

This will handle end tags. This handler actually calls the handle_endchar which you have overriden (hopefully).

handle_char($$)

This will handle actual text. This accumulates the snipplet given to it by XML::Parser into the string.

handle_endchar($$$)

This is the handle you need to override to get the entire element. In this parser this does nothing.

TEST($)

Test suite for this module.

Meta::Xml::Parsers::Base(3)

None.

	Name: Mark Veltzer
	Email: mailto:veltzer@cpan.org
	WWW: http://www.veltzer.org
	CPAN id: VELTZER

	0.00 MV web site automation
	0.01 MV SEE ALSO section fix
	0.02 MV md5 issues

Meta::Xml::Parsers::Base(3), strict(3)

Nothing.