Provided by: libxml-libxml-perl_2.0207+dfsg+really+2.0134-1build4_amd64 bug

NAME

       XML::LibXML::InputCallback - XML::LibXML Class for Input Callbacks

SYNOPSIS

         use XML::LibXML;

DESCRIPTION

       You may get unexpected results if you are trying to load external documents during libxml2
       parsing if the location of the resource is not a HTTP, FTP or relative location but a
       absolute path for example. To get around this limitation, you may add your own input
       handler to open, read and close particular types of locations or URI classes. Using this
       input callback handlers, you can handle your own custom URI schemes for example.

       The input callbacks are used whenever XML::LibXML has to get something other than
       externally parsed entities from somewhere. They are implemented using a callback stack on
       the Perl layer in analogy to libxml2's native callback stack.

       The XML::LibXML::InputCallback class transparently registers the input callbacks for the
       libxml2's parser processes.

   How does XML::LibXML::InputCallback work?
       The libxml2 library offers a callback implementation as global functions only.  To work-
       around the troubles resulting in having only global callbacks - for example, if the same
       global callback stack is manipulated by different applications running together in a
       single Apache Web-server environment -, XML::LibXML::InputCallback comes with a object-
       oriented and a function-oriented part.

       Using the function-oriented part the global callback stack of libxml2 can be manipulated.
       Those functions can be used as interface to the callbacks on the C- and XS Layer. At the
       object-oriented part, operations for working with the "pseudo-localized" callback stack
       are implemented. Currently, you can register and de-register callbacks on the Perl layer
       and initialize them on a per parser basis.

       Callback Groups

       The libxml2 input callbacks come in groups. One group contains a URI matcher (match), a
       data stream constructor (open), a data stream reader (read), and a data stream destructor
       (close). The callbacks can be manipulated on a per group basis only.

       The Parser Process

       The parser process works on an XML data stream, along which, links to other resources can
       be embedded. This can be links to external DTDs or XIncludes for example. Those resources
       are identified by URIs. The callback implementation of libxml2 assumes that one callback
       group can handle a certain amount of URIs and a certain URI scheme. Per default, callback
       handlers for file://*, file:://*.gz, http://* and ftp://* are registered.

       Callback groups in the callback stack are processed from top to bottom, meaning that
       callback groups registered later will be processed before the earlier registered ones.

       While parsing the data stream, the libxml2 parser checks if a registered callback group
       will handle a URI - if they will not, the URI will be interpreted as file://URI. To handle
       a URI, the match callback will have to return '1'. If that happens, the handling of the
       URI will be passed to that callback group. Next, the URI will be passed to the open
       callback, which should return a reference to the data stream if it successfully opened the
       file, '0' otherwise. If opening the stream was successful, the read callback will be
       called repeatedly until it returns an empty string. After the read callback, the close
       callback will be called to close the stream.

       Organisation of callback groups in XML::LibXML::InputCallback

       Callback groups are implemented as a stack (Array), each entry holds a reference to an
       array of the callbacks. For the libxml2 library, the XML::LibXML::InputCallback callback
       implementation appears as one single callback group. The Perl implementation however
       allows one to manage different callback stacks on a per libxml2-parser basis.

   Using XML::LibXML::InputCallback
       After object instantiation using the parameter-less constructor, you can register callback
       groups.

         my $input_callbacks = XML::LibXML::InputCallback->new();
         $input_callbacks->register_callbacks([ $match_cb1, $open_cb1,
                                                $read_cb1, $close_cb1 ] );
         $input_callbacks->register_callbacks([ $match_cb2, $open_cb2,
                                                $read_cb2, $close_cb2 ] );
         $input_callbacks->register_callbacks( [ $match_cb3, $open_cb3,
                                                 $read_cb3, $close_cb3 ] );

         $parser->input_callbacks( $input_callbacks );
         $parser->parse_file( $some_xml_file );

   What about the old callback system prior to XML::LibXML::InputCallback?
       In XML::LibXML versions prior to 1.59 - i.e. without the XML::LibXML::InputCallback module
       - you could define your callbacks either using globally or locally. You still can do that
       using XML::LibXML::InputCallback, and in addition to that you can define the callbacks on
       a per parser basis!

       If you use the old callback interface through global callbacks, XML::LibXML::InputCallback
       will treat them with a lower priority as the ones registered using the new interface. The
       global callbacks will not override the callback groups registered using the new interface.
       Local callbacks are attached to a specific parser instance, therefore they are treated
       with highest priority. If the match callback of the callback group registered as local
       variable is identical to one of the callback groups registered using the new interface,
       that callback group will be replaced.

       Users of the old callback implementation whose open callback returned a plain string, will
       have to adapt their code to return a reference to that string after upgrading to version
       >= 1.59. The new callback system can only deal with the open callback returning a
       reference!

INTERFACE DESCRIPTION

   Global Variables
       $_CUR_CB
           Stores the current callback and can be used as shortcut to access the callback stack.

       @_GLOBAL_CALLBACKS
           Stores all callback groups for the current parser process.

       @_CB_STACK
           Stores the currently used callback group. Used to prevent parser errors when dealing
           with nested XML data.

   Global Callbacks
       _callback_match
           Implements the interface for the match callback at C-level and for the selection of
           the callback group from the callbacks defined at the Perl-level.

       _callback_open
           Forwards the open callback from libxml2 to the corresponding callback function at the
           Perl-level.

       _callback_read
           Forwards the read request to the corresponding callback function at the Perl-level and
           returns the result to libxml2.

       _callback_close
           Forwards the close callback from libxml2 to the corresponding callback function at the
           Perl-level..

   Class methods
       new()
           A simple constructor.

       register_callbacks( [ $match_cb, $open_cb, $read_cb, $close_cb ])
           The four callbacks have to be given as array reference in the above order match, open,
           read, close!

       unregister_callbacks( [ $match_cb, $open_cb, $read_cb, $close_cb ])
           With no arguments given, unregister_callbacks() will delete the last registered
           callback group from the stack. If four callbacks are passed as array reference, the
           callback group to unregister will be identified by the match callback and deleted from
           the callback stack. Note that if several identical match callbacks are defined in
           different callback groups, ALL of them will be deleted from the stack.

       init_callbacks( $parser )
           Initializes the callback system for the provided parser before starting a parsing
           process.

       cleanup_callbacks()
           Resets global variables and the libxml2 callback stack.

       lib_init_callbacks()
           Used internally for callback registration at C-level.

       lib_cleanup_callbacks()
           Used internally for callback resetting at the C-level.

EXAMPLE CALLBACKS

       The following example is a purely fictitious example that uses a MyScheme::Handler object
       that responds to methods similar to an IO::Handle.

         # Define the four callback functions
         sub match_uri {
             my $uri = shift;
             return $uri =~ /^myscheme:/; # trigger our callback group at a 'myscheme' URIs
         }

         sub open_uri {
             my $uri = shift;
             my $handler = MyScheme::Handler->new($uri);
             return $handler;
         }

         # The returned $buffer will be parsed by the libxml2 parser
         sub read_uri {
             my $handler = shift;
             my $length = shift;
             my $buffer;
             read($handler, $buffer, $length);
             return $buffer; # $buffer will be an empty string '' if read() is done
         }

         # Close the handle associated with the resource.
         sub close_uri {
             my $handler = shift;
             close($handler);
         }

         # Register them with a instance of XML::LibXML::InputCallback
         my $input_callbacks = XML::LibXML::InputCallback->new();
         $input_callbacks->register_callbacks([ \&match_uri, \&open_uri,
                                                \&read_uri, \&close_uri ] );

         # Register the callback group at a parser instance
         $parser->input_callbacks( $input_callbacks );

         # $some_xml_file will be parsed using our callbacks
         $parser->parse_file( $some_xml_file );

AUTHORS

       Matt Sergeant, Christian Glahn, Petr Pajas

VERSION

       2.0134

COPYRIGHT

       2001-2007, AxKit.com Ltd.

       2002-2006, Christian Glahn.

       2006-2009, Petr Pajas.

LICENSE

       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
       terms as Perl itself.