NAME

       XML::Grove::AsString - output content of XML objects as a string

SYNOPSIS

        use XML::Grove::AsString;

        # Using as_string method on XML::Grove::Document or XML::Grove::Element:
        $string = $xml_object->as_string OPTIONS;
        $string = $element->attr_as_string $attr, OPTIONS;

        # Using an XML::Grove::AsString instance:
        $writer = new XML::Grove::AsString OPTIONS;

        $string = $writer->as_string($xml_object);
        $writer->as_string($xml_object, $file_handle);

DESCRIPTION

       Calling `"as_string"' on an XML object returns the character data contents of that object
       as a string, including all elements below that object.  Calling `"attr_as_string"' on an
       element returns the contents of the named attribute as a string.  Comments, processing
       instructions, and, by default, entities all return an empty string.

       OPTIONS may either be a key-value list or a hash containing the options described below.
       OPTIONS may be modified directly in the object.  The default options are no filtering and
       entities are mapped to empty strings.

OPTIONS

       Filter
           `"Filter"' is an anonymous sub that gets called to process character data before it is
           appended to the string to be returned.  This can be used, for example, to escape
           characters that are special in output formats.  The `"Filter"' sub is called like
           this:

               $string = &$filter ($character_data);

       EntityMap
           `"EntityMap"' is an object that accepts `"lookup"' methods or an anonymous sub that
           gets called with the entity replacement text (data) and mapper options as arguments
           and returns the corresponding character replacements.  It is called like this if it is
           an object:

               $replacement_text = $entity_map->lookup ($entity_data,
                                                        $entity_map_options);

           or this if it is a sub:

               $replacement_text = &$entity_map ($entity_data,
                                                 $entity_map_options);

       EntityMapOptions
           `"EntityMapOptions"' is a hash passed through to the `"lookup"' method or anonymous
           sub, the type of value is defined by the entity mapping package or the anonymous sub.

       EntityMapFilter
           `"EntityMapFilter"' is a flag to indicate if mapped entities should be filtered after
           mapping.

EXAMPLES

       Here is an example of entity mapping using the Text::EntityMap module:

           use Text::EntityMap;
           use XML::Grove::AsString;

           $html_iso_dia = Text::EntityMap->load ('ISOdia.2html');
           $html_iso_pub = Text::EntityMap->load ('ISOpub.2html');
           $html_map = Text::EntityMap->group ($html_iso_dia,
                                               $html_iso_pub);

           $element->as_string (EntityMap => $html_map);

AUTHOR

       Ken MacLeod, ken@bitsko.slc.ut.us

SEE ALSO

       perl(1), XML::Grove(3)

       Extensible Markup Language (XML) <http://www.w3c.org/XML>