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XML

Must be included via require.


xml.encode

Returns a string of XML.

Parameters

  1. data — A table or string to encode as XML.
  2. pretty — Whether to return a human-readable string of XML. Defaults to false.
local xml = require "pluto:xml"

print(xml.encode({
tag = "root",
children = {
{
tag = "entry",
attributes = {
["type"] = "primary"
},
children = {
"Text node"
}
},
{
tag = "entry"
}
}
}, true))
--> <root>
--> <entry type="primary">
--> Text node
--> </entry>
--> <entry></entry>
--> </root>

xml.decode

Returns a table representing the XML data.

Parameters

  1. data — The XML data to decode.
  2. parser — Which parser to use against the data. Can be "html", "xml" (default), or "lax" (XML but accepts attributes without =).
local xml = require "pluto:xml"

local root = xml.decode([[
<entries>
<entry type="primary">
<name>primary</name>
</entry>
</entries>
]])

print(dumpvar(root))
--> {
--> ["tag"] = string(7) "entries",
--> ["children"] = {
--> [1] = {
--> ["tag"] = string(5) "entry",
--> ["attributes"] = {
--> ["type"] = string(7) "primary",
--> },
--> ["children"] = {
--> [1] = {
--> ["tag"] = string(4) "name",
--> ["children"] = {
--> [1] = string(7) "primary",
--> },
--> },
--> },
--> },
--> },
--> }

For ease of use, the returned tables have an __index metamethod:

-- root is <entries>, so its first child is <entry>.
-- we make use of the metamethod to get to <name>:
print(dumpvar(root.children[1].name))
--> {
--> ["tag"] = string(4) "name",
--> ["children"] = {
--> [1] = string(7) "primary",
--> },
--> }

If there is no single root element, a "body" element is implied as the root:

local xml = require "pluto:xml"

print(dumpvar(xml.decode([[
<entry/>
<entry/>
]])))

--> {
--> ["tag"] = string(4) "body",
--> ["children"] = {
--> [1] = {
--> ["tag"] = string(5) "entry",
--> },
--> [2] = {
--> ["tag"] = string(5) "entry",
--> },
--> },
--> }