NAME

Pod::XPath - use XPath expressions to navigate a POD document

SYNOPSIS

        use Pod::XPath;
        my $pod = Pod::XPath->new($podfile);

        my $head1nodes = $pod->find("/pod/sect1");

DESCRIPTION

"Pod::XPath" allows accessing elements of a POD document using XPath expressions. The document or string is first turned into XML using "Pod::XML", and then passed to "XML::XPath" to parse.

All standard XPath expressions can be used to retrieve data from the document. See the Pod::XML manpage for a description of the document produced from the POD document. The object returned from "new" is an instance of "XML::XPath"; see the XML::XPath manpage.

"Pod::XPath" can be invoked with any one of the following:

/path/to/file.pod

        A path to a POD document. If the path is relative, it is taken as
        relative to the current working directory.

            my $pod = Pod::XPath->new("$ENV{HOME}/lib/MyDoc.pod");

Module::Name

A module name. This has to contain ::.

my $pod = Pod::XPath->new("Pod::XPath");

GLOB ref

A filehandle.

my $pod = Pod::XPath->new(\*STDIN);

EXAMPLES

To get all the major sections of a document (i.e., all the "head1" sections), use:

my $head1_nodeset = $pod->find("/pod/sect1");

From there, to get subsections:

        for my $head1 ($head1_nodeset->get_nodelist) {
            print $head1->find("title/text()"), "\n";
            $head2_nodeset = $head1->find("sect2");
        
            for $head2 ($head2_nodeset->get_nodelist) {
                print "\t", $head2->find("title/text()"), "\n"
            }
        }

To get the SYNOPSIS:

$synopsis = $pod->find('/pod/sect1[title/text() = "SYNOPSIS"]');

Or the SEE ALSO list:

$see_also = $pod->find('/pod/sect1[title/text() = "SEE ALSO"]');

The author's name:

print $pod->find('/pod/sect1[title/text() = "AUTHOR"]/para[1]/text()');

To get the name of the version of "Data::Dumper":

        use Data::Dumper;
        my $pod = Pod::XPath->new($INC{'Data/Dumper.pm'});

        print $pod->find('/pod/sect1[title/text() = "VERSION"]/para[1]/text()');

SUPPORT

"Pod::XPath" is supported by the author.

VERSION

This is "Pod::XPath", revision $Revision: 1.4 $.

AUTHOR

darren chamberlain <darren@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT

(C) 2003 darren chamberlain

This library is free software; you may distribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO

the Perl manpage, the XML::XPath manpage, the Pod::XML manpage