MultiXML

A generic swappable back-end for XML parsing

Installation

gem install multi_xml

To ensure the code you're installing hasn't been tampered with, it's recommended that you verify the signature. To do this, you need to add my public key as a trusted certificate (you only need to do this once):

gem cert --add <(curl -Ls https://raw.github.com/sferik/multi_xml/master/certs/sferik.pem)

Then, install the gem with the high security trust policy:

gem install multi_xml -P HighSecurity

Documentation

http://rdoc.info/gems/multi_xml

Usage Examples

Lots of Ruby libraries utilize XML parsing in some form, and everyone has their favorite XML library. In order to best support multiple XML parsers and libraries, multi_xml is a general-purpose swappable XML backend library. You use it like so:

require 'multi_xml'

MultiXml.parser = :ox
MultiXml.parser = MultiXml::Parsers::Ox # Same as above
MultiXml.parse('<tag>This is the contents</tag>') # Parsed using Ox

MultiXml.parser = :libxml
MultiXml.parser = MultiXml::Parsers::Libxml # Same as above
MultiXml.parse('<tag>This is the contents</tag>') # Parsed using LibXML

MultiXml.parser = :nokogiri
MultiXml.parser = MultiXml::Parsers::Nokogiri # Same as above
MultiXml.parse('<tag>This is the contents</tag>') # Parsed using Nokogiri

MultiXml.parser = :rexml
MultiXml.parser = MultiXml::Parsers::Rexml # Same as above
MultiXml.parse('<tag>This is the contents</tag>') # Parsed using REXML

The parser setter takes either a symbol or a class (to allow for custom XML parsers) that responds to .parse at the class level.

MultiXML tries to have intelligent defaulting. That is, if you have any of the supported parsers already loaded, it will utilize them before attempting to load any. When loading, libraries are ordered by speed: first Ox, then LibXML, then Nokogiri, and finally REXML.

Supported Ruby Versions

This library aims to support and is tested against the following Ruby implementations:

Ruby 1.9.2
Ruby 1.9.3
Ruby 2.0.0

If something doesn't work on one of these interpreters, it's a bug.

This library may inadvertently work (or seem to work) on other Ruby implementations, however support will only be provided for the versions listed above.

If you would like this library to support another Ruby version, you may volunteer to be a maintainer. Being a maintainer entails making sure all tests run and pass on that implementation. When something breaks on your implementation, you will be responsible for providing patches in a timely fashion. If critical issues for a particular implementation exist at the time of a major release, support for that Ruby version may be dropped.

Inspiration

MultiXML was inspired by MultiJSON.