NAME

       Data::DumpXML - Dump arbitrary data structures as XML

SYNOPSIS

        use Data::DumpXML qw(dump_xml);
        $xml = dump_xml(@list)

DESCRIPTION

       This module provides a single function called dump_xml() that takes a list of Perl values as its argument
       and  produces  a  string  as its result.  The string returned is an XML document that represents any Perl
       data structures passed to the function.  Reference loops are handled correctly.

       The following data model is used:

          data : scalar*
          scalar = undef ⎪ str ⎪ ref ⎪ alias
          ref : scalar ⎪ array ⎪ hash ⎪ glob ⎪ code
          array: scalar*
          hash: (key scalar)*

       The distribution comes with an XML schema and a DTD that more formally describe this structure.

       As an example of the XML documents produced, the following call:

         $a = bless [1,2], "Foo";
         dump_xml($a);

       produces:

         <?xml version="1.0" encoding="US-ASCII"?>
         <data xmlns="http://www.cpan.org/.../Data-DumpXML.xsd">
          <ref>
           <array class="Foo">
            <str>1</str>
            <str>2</str>
           </array>
          </ref>
         </data>

       If dump_xml() is called in a void context, then  the  dump  is  printed  on  STDERR  automatically.   For
       compatibility with "Data::Dump", there is also an alias for dump_xml() called simply dump().

       "Data::DumpXML::Parser" is a class that can restore data structures dumped by dump_xml().

       Configuration variables

       The  generated  XML  is influenced by a set of configuration variables.  If you modify them, then it is a
       good idea to localize the effect. For example:

         sub my_dump_xml {
             local $Data::DumpXML::INDENT = "";
             local $Data::DumpXML::XML_DECL = 0;
             local $Data::DumpXML::DTD_LOCATION = "";
             local $Data::DumpXML::NS_PREFIX = "dumpxml";

             return dump_xml(@_);
         }

       The variables are:

       $Data::DumpXML::INDENT
           You can set the variable $Data::DumpXML::INDENT to control the amount  of  indenting.   The  variable
           contains  the  whitespace  you  want to be used for each level of indenting.  The default is a single
           space.  To suppress indenting, set it to "".

       $Data::DumpXML::INDENT_STYLE
           This variable controls where end element are placed.  If you set this variable to  the  value  "Lisp"
           then end tags are not prefixed by NL.  This give a more compact output.

       $Data::DumpXML::XML_DECL
           This  boolean variable controls whether an XML declaration should be prefixed to the output.  The XML
           declaration is the <?xml ...?> thingy.  The default is 1.  Set  this  value  to  0  to  suppress  the
           declaration.

       $Data::DumpXML::NAMESPACE
           This  variable contains the namespace used for the XML elements.  The default is to let this be a URI
           that actually resolve to the XML schema on CPAN.  Set it to "" to disable use of namespaces.

       $Data::DumpXML::NS_PREFIX
           This variable contains the namespace prefix to use on the elements.  The default is "",  which  means
           that a default namespace will be declared.

       $Data::DumpXML::SCHEMA_LOCATION
           This  variable  contains  the  location  of  the  XML schema.  If this variable is non-empty, then an
           "xsi:schemaLocation" attribute is added to the top level "data"  element.   The  default  is  not  to
           include this, as the location can be inferred from the default XML namespace used.

       $Data::DumpXML::DTD_LOCATION
           This variable contains the location of the DTD.  If this variable is non-empty, then a <!DOCTYPE ...>
           is included in the output.  The default is to point to the DTD on CPAN.  Set it to "" to suppress the
           <!DOCTYPE ...> line.

BUGS

       Class  names  with  8-bit  characters  are dumped as Latin-1, but converted to UTF-8 when restored by the
       Data::DumpXML::Parser.

       The content of globs and subroutines are not dumped.  They are restored as the strings "** glob  **"  and
       "** code **".

       LVALUE and IO objects are not dumped at all.  They simply disappear from the restored data structure.

SEE ALSO

       Data::DumpXML::Parser, XML::Parser, XML::Dumper, Data::Dump

AUTHORS

       The "Data::DumpXML" module is written by Gisle Aas <gisle@aas.no>, based on "Data::Dump".

       The  "Data::Dump"  module  was  written  by  Gisle  Aas,  based  on  "Data::Dumper"  by  Gurusamy Sarathy
       <gsar@umich.edu>.

        Copyright 1998-2003 Gisle Aas.
        Copyright 1996-1998 Gurusamy Sarathy.

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

perl v5.8.7                                        2006-04-08                                       DumpXML(3pm)