Data::Sofu - Perl extension for Sofu data

	use Data::Sofu;
	%hash=readSofu("file.sofu");
	...
	writeSofu("file.sofu",\%hash);

Or a litte more complex: use Data::Sofu qw/packSofu unpackSofu/; %hash=readSofu("file.sofu"); $comments=getSofucomments; open fh,">:UTF16-LE","file.sofu"; writeSofu(\*fh,\$hash,$comments); close fh; $texta=packSofu($arrayref); $texth=packSofu($hashref); $arrayref=unpackSofu($texta); $arrayhash=unpackSofu($texth);

	require Data::Sofu;
	my $sofu=new Sofu;
	%hash=$sofu->read("file.sofu");
	$comments=$sofu->comments;
	$sofu->write("file.sofu",$hashref);
	open fh,">:UTF16-LE",file.sofu";
	$sofu->write(\*fh,$hashref,$comments);
	close fh;
	$texta=$sofu->pack($arrayref);
	$texth=$sofu->pack($hashref);
	$arrayref=$sofu->unpack($texta);
	$arrayhash=$sofu->unpack($texth);

This Module provides the ability to read and write sofu files of the versions 0.1 and 0.2. Visit http://sofu.sf.net for a description about sofu.

It can also read not-so-wellformed sofu files and correct their errors.

Additionally it provides the ability to pack HASHes and ARRAYs to sofu strings and unpack those.

The comments in a sofu file can be preserved if they're saved with $sofu->comment or getSofucomments or if loadFile/load is used.

It also provides a compatibility layer for sofud via Data::Sofu::Object and Data::Sofu->loadFile();

Data::Sofu::Binary provides an experimental interface to Binary Sofu (.bsofu) files and streams.

This module can either be called using object-orientated notation or using the funtional interface.

Some features are only avaiable when using OO.

Gets the comments of the last file read

Writes a sofu file with the name FILE.

FILE can be:

A reference to a filehandle with the right encoding set or

a filename or

a reference to a scalar (Data will be read from a scalar)

An existing file of this name will be overwritten.

DATA can be a scalar, a hashref or an arrayref.

The top element of sofu files must be a hash, so any other datatype is converted to {Value=>DATA}.

	@a=(1,2,3);
	$sofu->write("Test.sofu",\@a);
	%data=$sofu->read("Test.sofu");
	@a=@{$data->{Value}}; # (1,2,3)

COMMENTS is a reference to hash with comments like the one retuned by comments()

Reads the sofu file FILE and returns a hash with the data.

FILE can be:

A reference to a filehandle with the right encoding set or

a filename or

a reference to a scalar (Data will be read from a scalar)

These methods are not exported by default:

Reads a .sofu file and converts it to Sofud compatible objects

FILE can be:

A reference to a filehandle with the right encoding set or

a filename or

a reference to a scalar (Data will be read from a scalar)

Returns a Data::Sofu::Object

Packs DATA to a sofu string.

DATA can be a scalar, a hashref or an arrayref.

This is different from a normal write(), because the lines are NOT indented and there will be placed brackets around the topmost element. (Which is not Sofu 0.2 conform, please use write(\$scalar,$data) instead).

COMMENTS is a reference to hash with comments like the one retuned by comments().

This function unpacks SOFU STRING and returns a scalar, which can be either a string or a reference to a hash or a reference to an array.

Can read Sofu and SofuML files but not binary Sofu files

Note you can also read packed Data with readSofu(\<packed Data string>):

	my $packed = packSofu($tree,$comments);
	my $tree2 = unpackSofu($packed);
	my $tree3 = readSofu(\$packed); 
	# $tree2 has the same data as $tree3 (and $tree of course)

Writes the Data as a binary file.

FILE can be:

A reference to a filehandle with raw encoding set or

a filename or

a reference to a scalar (Data will be read from a scalar)

DATA has to be a reference to a Hash or Data::Sofu::Object

COMMENTS is a reference to hash with comments like the one retuned by comments

More info on the other parameters in Data::Sofu::Binary

To write other Datastructures use this:

	writeSofuBinary("1.sofu",{Value=>$data});

Writes the Data as an XML file (for postprocessing with XSLT or CSS)

FILE can be:

A reference to a filehandle with some encoding set or

a filename or

a reference to a scalar (Data will be read from a scalar)

DATA has to be a reference to a Hash or Data::Sofu::Object

COMMENTS is a reference to hash with comments like the one retuned by comments, only used when DATA is not a Data::Sofu::Object

HEADER can be an costum file header, (defaults to qq(<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>\n<!DOCTYPE Sofu SYSTEM "http://sofu.sf.net/Sofu.dtd">\n) );

Default output (when given a filename) is UTF-8.

Reads a .sofu file and converts it to Sofud compatible objects.

FILE can be:

A reference to a filehandle with the right encoding set or

a filename or

a reference to a scalar (Data will be read from a scalar)

Returns a Data::Sofu::Object

	my $tree=Data::Sofu->loadFile("1.sofu");
	print $tree->list("Foo")->value(5);
	$tree->list("Foo")->appendElement(new Data::Sofu::Value(8));
	$tree->write("2.sofu");

Creates a new Data::Sofu object.

Sets the indent to INDENT. Default indent is "\t".

Enables/Disables sofu syntax warnings.

Gets/sets the comments of the last file read

Writes a sofu file with the name FILE.

FILE can be:

A reference to a filehandle with the right encoding set or

a filename or

a reference to a scalar (Data will be read from a scalar)

An existing file of this name will be overwritten.

DATA can be a scalar, a hashref or an arrayref.

The top element of sofu files must be a hash, so any other datatype is converted to {Value=>DATA}.

	@a=(1,2,3);
	$sofu->write("Test.sofu",\@a);
	%data=$sofu->read("Test.sofu");
	@a=@{$data->{Value}}; # (1,2,3)

COMMENTS is a reference to hash with comments like the one retuned by comments()

Reads the sofu file FILE and returns a hash with the data.

FILE can be:

A reference to a filehandle with the right encoding set or

a filename or

a reference to a scalar (Data will be read from a scalar)

Packs DATA to a sofu string.

DATA can be a scalar, a hashref or an arrayref.

COMMENTS is a reference to hash with comments like the one retuned by comments

This is different from a normal write(), because the lines are NOT indented and there will be placed brackets around the topmost element. (Which is not Sofu 0.2 conform, please use write(\$scalar,$data) instead).

This function unpacks SOFU STRING and returns a scalar, which can be either a string or a reference to a hash or a reference to an array.

Reads a .sofu file and converts it to Sofud compatible objects

FILE can be:

A reference to a filehandle with the right encoding set or

a filename or

a reference to a scalar (Data will be read from a scalar)

Returns a Data::Sofu::Object

Builds a Sofu Object Tree from a perl data structure

DATA can be a scalar, a hashref or an arrayref.

COMMENTS is a reference to hash with comments like the one retuned by comments

Returns a Data::Sofu::Object

Writes the Data as a binary file.

FILE can be:

A reference to a filehandle with raw encoding set or

a filename or

a reference to a scalar (Data will be read from a scalar)

DATA has to be a reference to a Hash or Data::Sofu::Object

COMMENTS is a reference to hash with comments like the one retuned by comments

More info on the other parameters in Data::Sofu::Binary

To write other Datastructures use this:

	$sofu->writeBinary("1.sofu",{Value=>$data});

Writes the Data as an XML file (for postprocessing with XSLT or CSS)

FILE can be:

A reference to a filehandle with some encoding set or

a filename or

a reference to a scalar (Data will be read from a scalar)

DATA has to be a reference to a Hash or Data::Sofu::Object

COMMENTS is a reference to hash with comments like the one retuned by comments, only used when DATA is not a Data::Sofu::Object

HEADER can be an costum file header, (defaults to qq(<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>\n<!DOCTYPE Sofu SYSTEM "http://sofu.sf.net/Sofu.dtd">\n) );

Default output (when given a filename) is UTF-8.

Returns DATA as an XML file (for postprocessing with XSLT or CSS) with no Indentation

DATA has to be a reference to a Hash or Data::Sofu::Object

COMMENTS is a reference to hash with comments like the one retuned by comments, only used when DATA is not a Data::Sofu::Object

HEADER can be an costum file header, (defaults to qq(<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>\n<!DOCTYPE Sofu SYSTEM "http://sofu.sf.net/Sofu.dtd">\n) );

Those are not (quite) the same:

	$string = $sofu->packML($tree,$comments) #Will not indent.
	$sofu->writeML(\$string,$tree,$comments)# Will indent.

Kyes are now automatically escaped according to the new sofu specification.

Double used references will now be converted to Sofu-References.

read, load, readSofu, loadSofu and Data::Sofu::loaFile now detect binary sofu (and load Data::Sofu::Binary)

read, load, readSofu, loadSofu, Data::Sofu::loaFile, unpackSofu and unpack detect SofuML (and load Data::Sofu::SofuML)

Comments written after an object will be rewritten at the top of an object:

	foo = { # Comment1
		Bar = "Baz"
	} # Comment2

will get to:

	foo = { # Comment1
	# Comment 2
		Bar = "Baz"
	} 

Sofu File are normally written in a Unicode format. Data::Sofu is trying to guess which format to read (usually works, thanks to Encode::Guess).

On the other hand the output defaults to UTF-16 (UNIX) (like SofuD). If you need other encoding you will have to prepare the filehandle yourself and give it to the write() funktions...

	open my $fh,">:encoding(latin1)","out.sofu";
	writeSofu($fh,$data);

Warning: UTF32 BE is not supported without BOM (looks too much like Binary);

Notes:

As for Encodings under Windows you should always have a :raw a first layer, but to make them compatible with Windows programs you will have to access special tricks:

	open my $fh,">:raw:encoding(UTF-16):crlf:utf8","out.sofu" #Write Windows UTF-16 Files
	open my $fh,">:raw:encoding(UTF-16)","out.sofu" #Write Unix UTF-16 Files
	#Same goes for UTF32

	#UTF-8: Don't use :utf8 or :raw:utf8 alone here, 
	#Perl has a different understanding of utf8 and UTF-8 (utf8 allows some errors).
	open my $fh,">:raw:encoding(UTF-8)","out.sofu" #Unix style UTF-8 
	open my $fh,">:raw:encoding(UTF-8):crlf:utf8","out.sofu" #Windows style UTF-8

	#And right after open():
	print $fh chr(65279); #Print UTF-8 Byte Order Mark (Some programs want it, some programs die on it...)

One last thing:

	open my $out,">:raw:encoding(UTF-16BE):crlf:utf8","out.sofu";
	print $out chr(65279); #Byte Order Mark
	#Now you can write out UTF16 with BOM in BigEndian (even if you machine in Little Endian)

perl(1),http://sofu.sf.net

For Sofud compatible Object Notation: Data::Sofu::Object

For Sofu Binary: Data::Sofu::Binary

For SofuML Data::Sofu::SofuML