/** @mainpage
<h1> TinyXML </h1>
TinyXML is a simple, small, C++ XML parser that can be easily
integrated into other programs.
<h2> What it does. </h2>
In brief, TinyXML parses an XML document, and builds from that a
Document Object Model (DOM) that can be read, modified, and saved.
XML stands for "eXtensible Markup Language." It allows you to create
your own document markups. Where HTML does a very good job of marking
documents for browsers, XML allows you to define any kind of document
markup, for example a document that describes a "to do" list for an
organizer application. XML is a very structured and convenient format.
All those random file formats created to store application data can
all be replaced with XML. One parser for everything.
The best place for the complete, correct, and quite frankly hard to
read spec is at <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xml-20040204/">
http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xml-20040204/</a>. An intro to XML
(that I really like) can be found at
<a href="http://skew.org/xml/tutorial/">http://skew.org/xml/tutorial</a>.
There are different ways to access and interact with XML data.
TinyXML uses a Document Object Model (DOM), meaning the XML data is parsed
into a C++ objects that can be browsed and manipulated, and then
written to disk or another output stream. You can also construct an XML document
from scratch with C++ objects and write this to disk or another output
stream.
TinyXML is designed to be easy and fast to learn. It is two headers
and four cpp files. Simply add these to your project and off you go.
There is an example file - xmltest.cpp - to get you started.
TinyXML is released under the ZLib license,
so you can use it in open source or commercial code. The details
of the license are at the top of every source file.
TinyXML attempts to be a flexible parser, but with truly correct and
compliant XML output. TinyXML should compile on any reasonably C++
compliant system. It does not rely on exceptions or RTTI. It can be
compiled with or without STL support. TinyXML fully supports
the UTF-8 encoding, and the first 64k character entities.
<h2> What it doesn't do. </h2>
TinyXML doesn't parse or use DTDs (Document Type Definitions) or XSLs
(eXtensible Stylesheet Language.) There are other parsers out there
(check out www.sourceforge.org, search for XML) that are much more fully
featured. But they are also much bigger, take longer to set up in
your project, have a higher learning curve, and often have a more
restrictive license. If you are working with browsers or have more
complete XML needs, TinyXML is not the parser for you.
The following DTD syntax will not parse at this time in TinyXML:
@verbatim
<!DOCTYPE Archiv [
<!ELEMENT Comment (#PCDATA)>
]>
@endverbatim
because TinyXML sees this as a !DOCTYPE node with an illegally
embedded !ELEMENT node. This may be addressed in the future.
<h2> Tutorials. </h2>
For the impatient, here is a tutorial to get you going. A great way to get started,
but it is worth your time to read this (very short) manual completely.
- @subpage tutorial0
<h2> Code Status. </h2>
TinyXML is mature, tested code. It is very stable. If you find
bugs, please file a bug report on the sourceforge web site
(www.sourceforge.net/projects/tinyxml). We'll get them straightened
out as soon as possible.
There are some areas of improvement; please check sourceforge if you are
interested in working on TinyXML.
<h2> Related Projects </h2>
TinyXML projects you may find useful! (Descriptions provided by the projects.)
<ul>
<li> <b>TinyXPath</b> (http://tinyxpath.sourceforge.net). TinyXPath is a small footprint
XPath syntax decoder, written in C++.</li>
<li> <b>TinyXML++</b> (http://code.google.com/p/ticpp/). TinyXML++ is a completely new
interface to TinyXML that uses MANY of the C++ strengths. Templates,
exceptions, and much better error handling.</li>
</ul>
<h2> Features </h2>
<h3> Using STL </h3>
TinyXML can be compiled to use or not use STL. When using STL, TinyXML
uses the std::string class, and fully supports std::istream, std::ostream,
operator<<, and operator>>. Many API methods have both 'const char*' and
'const std::string&' forms.
When STL support is compiled out, no STL files are included whatsoever. All
the string classes are implemented by TinyXML itself. API methods
all use the 'const char*' form for input.
Use the compile time #define:
TIXML_USE_STL
to compile one version or the other. This can be passed by the compiler,
or set as the first line of "tinyxml.h".
Note: If compiling the test code in Linux, setting the environment
variable TINYXML_USE_STL=YES/NO will control STL compilation. In the
Windows project file, STL and non STL targets are provided. In your project,
It's probably easiest to add the line "#define TIXML_USE_STL" as the first
line of tinyxml.h.
<h3> UTF-8 </h3>
TinyXML supports UTF-8 allowing to manipulate XML files in any language. TinyXML
also supports "legacy mode" - the encoding used before UTF-8 support and
probably best described as "extended ascii".
Normally, TinyXML will try to detect the correct encoding and use it. However,
by setting the value of TIXML_DEFAULT_ENCODING in the header file, TinyXML
can be forced to always use one encoding.
TinyXML will assume Legacy Mode until one of the following occurs:
<ol>
<li> If the non-standard but common "UTF-8 lead bytes" (0xef 0xbb 0xbf)
begin the file or data stream, TinyXML will read it as UTF-8. </li>
<li> If the declaration tag is read, and it has an encoding="UTF-8", then
TinyXML will read it as UTF-8. </li>
<li> If the declaration tag is read, and it has no encoding specified, then TinyXML will
read it as UTF-8. </li>
<li> If the declaration tag is read, and it has an encoding="something else", then TinyXML
will read it as Legacy Mode. In legacy mode, TinyXML will work as it did before. It's
not clear what that mode does exactly, but old content should keep working.</li>
<li> Until one of the above criteria is met, TinyXML runs in Legacy Mode.</li>
</ol>
What happens if the encoding is incorrectly set or detected? TinyXML will try
to read and pass through text seen as improperly encoded. You may get some strange results or
mangled characters. You may want to force TinyXML to the correct mode.
You may force TinyXML to Legacy Mode by using LoadFile( TIXML_ENCODING_LEGACY ) or
LoadFile( filename, TIXML_ENCODING_LEGACY ). You may force it to use legacy mode all
the time by setting TIXML_DEFAULT_ENCODING = TIXML_ENCODING_LEGACY. Likewise, you may
force it to TIXML_ENCODING_UTF8 with the same technique.
For English users, using English XML, UTF-8 is the same as low-ASCII. You
don't need to be aware of UTF-8 or change your code in any way. You can think
of UTF-8 as a "superset" of ASCII.
UTF-8 is not a double byte format - but it is a standard encoding of Unicode!
TinyXML does not use or directly support wchar, TCHAR, or Microsoft's _UNICODE at this time.
It is common to see the term "Unicode" improperly refer to UTF-16, a wide byte encoding
of unicode. This is a source of confusion.
For "high-ascii" languages - everything not English, pretty much - TinyXML can
handle all languages, at the same time, as long as the XML is encoded
in UTF-8. That can be a little tricky, older programs and operating systems
tend to use the "default" or "traditional" code page. Many apps (and almost all
modern ones) can output UTF-8, but older or stubborn (or just broken) ones
still output text in the default code page.
For example, Japanese systems traditionally use SHIFT-JIS encoding.
Text encoded as SHIFT-JIS can not be read by TinyXML.
A good text editor can import SHIFT-JIS and then save as UTF-8.
The <a href="http://skew.org/xml/tutorial/">Skew.org link</a> does a great
job covering the encoding issue.
The test file "utf8test.xml" is an XML containing English, Spanish, Russian,
and Simplified Chinese. (Hopefully they are trans