Provided by: tdom_0.9.5.1-3_amd64 
NAME
expat - Creates an instance of an expat parser object
SYNOPSIS
package require tdom
expat ?parsername? ?-namespace? ?arg arg ..
xml::parser ?parsername? ?-namespace? ?arg arg ..
_________________________________________________________________
DESCRIPTION
The parser created with expat or xml::parser (which is just another name for the same command in an own
namespace) are able to parse any kind of well-formed XML. The parsers are stream oriented XML parser.
This means that you register handler scripts with the parser prior to starting the parse. These handler
scripts are called when the parser discovers the associated structures in the document being parsed. A
start tag is an example of the kind of structures for which you may register a handler script.
The parsers always check for XML well-formedness of the input (and report error, if the input isn't well-
formed). They parse the internal DTD and, at request, external DTD and external entities, if you resolve
the identifier of the external entities with the -externalentitycommand script (see there). If you use
the -validateCmd option (see there), the input is additionally validated.
Additionly, the Tcl extension code that implements this command provides an API for adding C level coded
handlers. Up to now, there exists the parser extension command "tdom". The handler set installed by this
extension build an in memory "tDOM" DOM tree, while the parser is parsing the input.
It is possible to register an arbitrary amount of different handler scripts and C level handlers for most
of the events. If the event occurs, they are called in turn.
COMMAND OPTIONS
-namespace
Enables namespace parsing. You must use this option while creating the parser with the expat or
xml::parser command. You can't enable (nor disable) namespace parsing with <parserobj> configure
....
-namespaceseparator char
This option has only effect, if used together with the option -namespace. If given, this option
determines the character inserted between namespace URI and the local name, while reporting an XML
element name to a handler script. The default is the character ':'. The value must be a one-
character string less or equal to \u00FF, preferably a 7-bit ASCII character or the empty string.
If the value is the empty string (as well, as if the value is \x00) the namespace URI and the
local name will be concatenated without any separator.
-final boolean
This option indicates whether the document data next presented to the parse method is the final
part of the document. A value of "0" indicates that more data is expected. A value of "1"
indicates that no more is expected. The default value is "1".
If this option is set to "0" then the parser will not report certain errors if the XML data is not
well-formed upon end of input, such as unclosed or unbalanced start or end tags. Instead some data
may be saved by the parser until the next call to the parse method, thus delaying the reporting of
some of the data.
If this option is set to "1" then documents which are not well-formed upon end of input will
generate an error.
-validateCmd <tdom schema cmd>
This option expects the name of a tDOM schema command. If this option is given, then the input is
also validated. If the schema command hasn't set a reportcmd then the first validation error will
stop further parsing (as a well-formedness error).
-baseurl url
Reports the base url of the document to the parser.
-fastcall boolean
By default this option is 0 (off). If this option is on then any handler installed by the options
-elementstartcommand, -elementendcommand and -characterdatacommand from this moment on is
installed in a way that calling it has lesser overhead as usual. This option may be switched
between callback hander (re-)installion as desired.
However this has some requirenments. The handler proc has to be defined before used as callback.
If it is not then the callback is installed as ususal. And the handler proc must not be removed or
re-defined as long as it is used as callback. If this is done the programm probably will crash but
also may execute arbitrary code.
The callback handler installed while this option is on will not be traced by executing them.
-keepTextStart boolean
By default this option is 0 (off). If this option is on then the position information of the start
of a text or CDATA node is keeped over collecting the sometimes by expat delivered cdata pieces.
With this option on the position information returned by the parser in a -characterdatacommand
proc will be correct, otherwise not. Called in all other handler code the parser always return
the correct position results, no matter what value this option have. It is off by default because
it is rarely needed and saves a few cpu cyles this way.
-elementstartcommand script
Specifies a Tcl command to associate with the start tag of an element. The actual command consists
of this option followed by at least two arguments: the element type name and the attribute list.
The attribute list is a Tcl list consisting of name/value pairs, suitable for passing to the array
set Tcl command.
Example:
proc HandleStart {name attlist} {
puts stderr "Element start ==> $name has attributes $attlist"
}
$parser configure -elementstartcommand HandleStart
$parser parse {<test id="123"></test>}
This would result in the following command being invoked:
HandleStart text {id 123}
-elementendcommand script
Specifies a Tcl command to associate with the end tag of an element. The actual command consists
of this option followed by at least one argument: the element type name. In addition, if the
-reportempty option is set then the command may be invoked with the -empty configuration option to
indicate whether it is an empty element. See the description of the -reportempty option for an
example.
Example:
proc HandleEnd {name} {
puts stderr "Element end ==> $name"
}
$parser configure -elementendcommand HandleEnd
$parser parse {<test id="123"></test>}
This would result in the following command being invoked:
HandleEnd test
-characterdatacommand script
Specifies a Tcl command to associate with character data in the document, ie. text. The actual
command consists of this option followed by one argument: the text.
Other than with the C API of the expat parser it is guaranteed that character data will be passed
to the application in a single call to this command.
Example:
proc HandleText {data} {
puts stderr "Character data ==> $data"
}
$parser configure -characterdatacommand HandleText
$parser parse {<test>this is a test document</test>}
This would result in the following command being invoked:
HandleText {this is a test document}
-processinginstructioncommand script
Specifies a Tcl command to associate with processing instructions in the document. The actual
command consists of this option followed by two arguments: the PI target and the PI data.
Example:
proc HandlePI {target data} {
puts stderr "Processing instruction ==> $target $data"
}
$parser configure -processinginstructioncommand HandlePI
$parser parse {<test><?special this is a processing instruction?></test>}
This would result in the following command being invoked:
HandlePI special {this is a processing instruction}
-notationdeclcommand script
Specifies a Tcl command to associate with notation declaration in the document. The actual command
consists of this option followed by four arguments: the notation name, the base uri of the
document (this means, whatever was set by the -baseurl option), the system identifier and the
public identifier. The notation name is never empty, the other arguments may be.
-externalentitycommand script
Specifies a Tcl command to associate with references to external entities in the document. The
actual command consists of this option followed by three arguments: the base uri, the system
identifier of the entity and the public identifier of the entity. The base uri and the public
identifier may be the empty list.
This handler script has to return a tcl list consisting of three elements. The first element of
this list signals, how the external entity is returned to the processor. At the moment, the three
allowed types are "string", "channel" and "filename". The second element of the list has to be the
(absolute) base URI of the external entity to be parsed. The third element of the list are data,
either the already read data out of the external entity as string in the case of type "string", or
the name of a tcl channel, in the case of type "channel", or the path to the external entity to be
read in case of type "filename". Behind the scene, the external entity referenced by the returned
Tcl channel, string or file name will be parsed with an expat external entity parser with the same
handler sets as the main parser. If parsing of the external entity fails, the whole parsing is
stopped with an error message. If a Tcl command registered as externalentitycommand isn't able to
resolve an external entity it is allowed to return TCL_CONTINUE. In this case, the wrapper give
the next registered externalentitycommand a try. If no externalentitycommand is able to handle the
external entity parsing stops with an error.
Example:
proc externalEntityRefHandler {base systemId publicId} {
if {![regexp {^[a-zA-Z]+:/} $systemId]} {
regsub {^[a-zA-Z]+:} $base {} base
set basedir [file dirname $base]
set systemId "[set basedir]/[set systemId]"
} else {
regsub {^[a-zA-Z]+:} $systemId systemId
}
if {[catch {set fd [open $systemId]}]} {
return -code error \
-errorinfo "Failed to open external entity $systemId"
}
return [list channel $systemId $fd]
}
set parser [expat -externalentitycommand externalEntityRefHandler \
-baseurl "file:///local/doc/doc.xml" \
-paramentityparsing notstandalone]
$parser parse {<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE test SYSTEM "test.dtd">
<test/>}
This would result in the following command being invoked:
externalEntityRefHandler file:///local/doc/doc.xml test.dtd {}
External entities are only tried to resolve via this handler script, if necessary. This means,
external parameter entities triggers this handler only, if -paramentityparsing is used with
argument "always" or if -paramentityparsing is used with argument "notstandalone" and the document
isn't marked as standalone.
-unknownencodingcommand script
Not implemented at Tcl level.
-startnamespacedeclcommand script
Specifies a Tcl command to associate with start scope of namespace declarations in the document.
The actual command consists of this option followed by two arguments: the namespace prefix and the
namespace URI. For an xmlns attribute, prefix will be the empty list. For an xmlns="" attribute,
uri will be the empty list. The call to the start and end element handlers occur between the calls
to the start and end namespace declaration handlers.
-endnamespacedeclcommand script
Specifies a Tcl command to associate with end scope of namespace declarations in the document. The
actual command consists of this option followed by the namespace prefix as argument. In case of an
xmlns attribute, prefix will be the empty list. The call to the start and end element handlers
occur between the calls to the start and end namespace declaration handlers.
-commentcommand script
Specifies a Tcl command to associate with comments in the document. The actual command consists of
this option followed by one argument: the comment data.
Example:
proc HandleComment {data} {
puts stderr "Comment ==> $data"
}
$parser configure -commentcommand HandleComment
$parser parse {<test><!-- this is <obviously> a comment --></test>}
This would result in the following command being invoked:
HandleComment { this is <obviously> a comment }
-notstandalonecommand script
This Tcl command is called, if the document is not standalone (it has an external subset or a
reference to a parameter entity, but does not have standalone="yes"). It is called with no
additional arguments.
-startcdatasectioncommand script
Specifies a Tcl command to associate with the start of a CDATA section. It is called with no
additional arguments.
-endcdatasectioncommand script
Specifies a Tcl command to associate with the end of a CDATA section. It is called with no
additional arguments.
-elementdeclcommand script
Specifies a Tcl command to associate with element declarations. The actual command consists of
this option followed by two arguments: the name of the element and the content model. The content
model arg is a tcl list of four elements. The first list element specifies the type of the XML
element; the six different possible types are reported as "MIXED", "NAME", "EMPTY", "CHOICE",
"SEQ" or "ANY". The second list element reports the quantifier to the content model in XML Syntax
("?", "*" or "+") or is the empty list. If the type is "MIXED", then the quantifier will be "{}",
indicating an PCDATA only element, or "*", with the allowed elements to intermix with PCDATA as
tcl list as the fourth argument. If the type is "NAME", the name is the third arg; otherwise the
third argument is the empty list. If the type is "CHOICE" or "SEQ" the fourth argument will
contain a list of content models build like this one. The "EMPTY", "ANY", and "MIXED" types will
only occur at top level.
Examples:
proc elDeclHandler {name content} {
puts "$name $content"
}
set parser [expat -elementdeclcommand elDeclHandler]
$parser parse {<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE test [
<!ELEMENT test (#PCDATA)>
]>
<test>foo</test>}
This would result in the following command being invoked:
test {MIXED {} {} {}}
$parser reset
$parser parse {<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE test [
<!ELEMENT test (a|b)>
]>
<test><a/></test>}
This would result in the following command being invoked:
elDeclHandler test {CHOICE {} {} {{NAME {} a {}} {NAME {} b {}}}}
-attlistdeclcommand script
Specifies a Tcl command to associate with attlist declarations. The actual command consists of
this option followed by five arguments. The Attlist declaration handler is called for *each*
attribute. So a single Attlist declaration with multiple attributes declared will generate
multiple calls to this handler. The arguments are the element name this attribute belongs to, the
name of the attribute, the type of the attribute, the default value (may be the empty list) and a
required flag. If this flag is true and the default value is not the empty list, then this is a
"#FIXED" default.
Example:
proc attlistHandler {elname name type default isRequired} {
puts "$elname $name $type $default $isRequired"
}
set parser [expat -attlistdeclcommand attlistHandler]
$parser parse {<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE test [
<!ELEMENT test EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST test
id ID #REQUIRED
name CDATA #IMPLIED>
]>
<test/>}
This would result in the following commands being invoked:
attlistHandler test id ID {} 1
attlistHandler test name CDATA {} 0
-startdoctypedeclcommand script
Specifies a Tcl command to associate with the start of the DOCTYPE declaration. This command is
called before any DTD or internal subset is parsed. The actual command consists of this option
followed by four arguments: the doctype name, the system identifier, the public identifier and a
boolean, that shows if the DOCTYPE has an internal subset.
-enddoctypedeclcommand script
Specifies a Tcl command to associate with the end of the DOCTYPE declaration. This command is
called after processing any external subset. It is called with no additional arguments.
-paramentityparsing never|notstandalone|always
"never" disables expansion of parameter entities, "always" expands always and "notstandalone"
only, if the document isn't "standalone='no'". The default ist "never"
-entitydeclcommand script
Specifies a Tcl command to associate with any entity declaration. The actual command consists of
this option followed by seven arguments: the entity name, a boolean identifying parameter
entities, the value of the entity, the base uri, the system identifier, the public identifier and
the notation name. According to the type of entity declaration some of this arguments may be the
empty list.
-ignorewhitecdata boolean
If this flag is set, element content which contain only whitespaces isn't reported with the
-characterdatacommand.
-ignorewhitespace boolean
Another name for -ignorewhitecdata; see there.
-handlerset name
This option sets the Tcl handler set scope for the configure options. Any option value pair
following this option in the same call to the parser are modifying the named Tcl handler set. If
you don't use this option, you are modifying the default Tcl handler set, named "default".
-noexpand boolean
Normally, the parser will try to expand references to entities defined in the internal subset. If
this option is set to a true value this entities are not expanded, but reported literal via the
default handler. Warning: If you set this option to true and doesn't install a default handler
(with the -defaultcommand option) for every handler set of the parser all internal entities are
silent lost for the handler sets without a default handler.
-useForeignDTD <boolean>
If <boolean> is true and the document does not have an external subset, the parser will call the
-externalentitycommand script with empty values for the systemId and publicID arguments. This
option must be set, before the first piece of data is parsed. Setting this option, after the
parsing has started has no effect. The default is not to use a foreign DTD. The default is
restored, after resetting the parser. Pleace notice, that a -paramentityparsing value of "never"
(which is the default) suppresses any call to the -externalentitycommand script. Pleace notice,
that, if the document also doesn't have an internal subset, the -startdoctypedeclcommand and
enddoctypedeclcommand scripts, if set, are not called.
-billionLaughsAttackProtectionMaximumAmplification <float>
<URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion_laughs_attack> This option together with
-billionLaughsAttackProtectionActivationThreshold gives control over the parser limits that
protects against billion laugh attacks (). This option expects a float >= 1.0 as argument. You
should never need to use this option, because the default value (100.0) should work for any real
data. If you ever need to increase this value for non-attack payload, please report.
-billionLaughsAttackProtectionActivationThreshold <long>
<URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion_laughs_attack> This option together with
-billionLaughsAttackProtectionMaximumAmplification gives control over the parser limits that
protects against billion laugh attacks (). This option expects a positiv integer as argument. You
should never need to use this option, because the default value (8388608) should work for any real
data. If you ever need to increase this value for non-attack payload, please report.
COMMAND METHODS
parser configure option value ?option value?
Sets configuration options for the parser. Every command option, except -namespace can be set or
modified with this method.
parser cget ?-handlerset name? option
Return the current configuration value option for the parser.
If the -handlerset option is used, the configuration for the named handler set is returned.
parser currentmarkup
Returns the current markup as found in the XML, if called from within one of its markup event
handler script (-elementstartcommand, -elementendcommand, -commentcommand and
-processinginstructioncommand). Otherwise it return the empty string.
parser delete
Deletes the parser and the parser command. A parser cannot be deleted from within one of its
handler callbacks (neither directly nor indirectly) and will raise a tcl error in this case.
parser free
Another name to call the method delete, see there.
parser get
-specifiedattributecount|-idattributeindex|-currentbytecount|-currentlinenumber|-currentcolumnnumber|-currentbyteindex
-specifiedattributecount
Returns the number of the attribute/value pairs passed in last call to the
elementstartcommand that were specified in the start-tag rather than defaulted. Each
attribute/value pair counts as 2; thus this corresponds to an index into the attribute list
passed to the elementstartcommand.
-idattributeindex
Returns the index of the ID attribute passed in the last call to XML_StartElementHandler,
or -1 if there is no ID attribute. Each attribute/value pair counts as 2; thus this
corresponds to an index into the attributes list passed to the elementstartcommand.
-currentbytecount
Return the number of bytes in the current event. Returns 0 if the event is in an internal
entity.
If you use this option consider if you may need the parser option -keepTextStart.
-currentlinenumber
Returns the line number of the current parse location.
If you use this option consider if you may need the parser option -keepTextStart.
-currentcolumnnumber
Returns the column number of the current parse location.
If you use this option consider if you may need the parser option -keepTextStart.
-currentbyteindex
Returns the byte index of the current parse location.
If you use this option consider if you may need the parser option -keepTextStart.
Only one value may be requested at a time.
parser parse data
Parses the XML string data. The event callback scripts will be called, as there triggering events
happens. This method cannot be used from within a callback (neither directly nor indirectly) of
the parser to be used and will raise an error in this case.
parser parsechannel channelID
Reads the XML data out of the tcl channel channelID (starting at the current access position,
without any seek) up to the end of file condition and parses that data. The channel encoding is
respected. Use the helper proc tDOM::xmlOpenFile out of the tDOM script library to open a file, if
you want to use this method. This method cannot be used from within a callback (neither directly
nor indirectly) of the parser to be used and will raise an error in this case.
parser parsefile filename
Reads the XML data directly out of the file with the filename filename and parses that data. This
is done with low-level file operations. The XML data must be in US-ASCII, ISO-8859-1, UTF-8 or
UTF-16 encoding. If applicable, this is the fastest way, to parse XML data. This method cannot be
used from within a callback (neither directly nor indirectly) of the parser to be used and will
raise an error in this case.
parser reset
Resets the parser in preparation for parsing another document. A parser cannot be reset from
within one of its handler callbacks (neither directly nor indirectly) and will raise a tcl error
in this cases.
Callback Command Return Codes
A script invoked for any of the parser callback commands, such as -elementstartcommand,
-elementendcommand, etc, may return an error code other than "ok" or "error". All callbacks may in
addition return "break" or "continue".
If a callback script returns an "error" error code then processing of the document is terminated and the
error is propagated in the usual fashion.
If a callback script returns a "break" error code then all further processing of every handler script out
of this Tcl handler set is suppressed for the further parsing. This does not influence any other handler
set.
If a callback script returns a "continue" error code then processing of the current element, and its
children, ceases for every handler script out of this Tcl handler set and processing continues with the
next (sibling) element. This does not influence any other handler set.
If a callback script returns a "return" error code then parsing is canceled altogether, but no error is
raised.
SEE ALSO
expatapi, tdom
KEYWORDS
SAX, push, pushparser
Tcl expat(3tcl)