AEXML

Swift minion for simple and lightweight XML parsing

I made this for personal use, but feel free to use it or contribute. For more examples check out Sources and Tests.

Index

Intro
Features
Usage
- Read XML
- Write XML
Installation
License

Intro

This is not a robust full featured XML parser, but rather simple, lightweight and easy to use utility for casual XML handling.

Features

Read XML data
Write XML string
Covered with unit tests
Covered with inline docs

Usage

Read XML

Let's say this is some XML string you picked up somewhere and made a variable data: Data from that.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<animals>
    <cats>
        <cat breed="Siberian" color="lightgray">Tinna</cat>
        <cat breed="Domestic" color="darkgray">Rose</cat>
        <cat breed="Domestic" color="yellow">Caesar</cat>
        <cat></cat>
    </cats>
    <dogs>
        <dog breed="Bull Terrier" color="white">Villy</dog>
        <dog breed="Bull Terrier" color="white">Spot</dog>
        <dog breed="Golden Retriever" color="yellow">Betty</dog>
        <dog breed="Miniature Schnauzer" color="black">Kika</dog>
    </dogs>
</animals>

This is how you can use AEXML for working with this data:
(for even more examples, look at the unit tests code included in project)

guard let
    let xmlPath = Bundle.main.path(forResource: "example", ofType: "xml"),
    let data = try? Data(contentsOf: URL(fileURLWithPath: xmlPath))
else { return }

do {
    let xmlDoc = try AEXMLDocument(xml: data, options: options)
        
    // prints the same XML structure as original
    print(xmlDoc.xml)
    
    // prints cats, dogs
    for child in xmlDoc.root.children {
        print(child.name)
    }
    
    // prints Optional("Tinna") (first element)
    print(xmlDoc.root["cats"]["cat"].value)
    
    // prints Tinna (first element)
    print(xmlDoc.root["cats"]["cat"].string)
    
    // prints Optional("Kika") (last element)
    print(xmlDoc.root["dogs"]["dog"].last?.value)
    
    // prints Betty (3rd element)
    print(xmlDoc.root["dogs"].children[2].string)
    
    // prints Tinna, Rose, Caesar
    if let cats = xmlDoc.root["cats"]["cat"].all {
        for cat in cats {
            if let name = cat.value {
                print(name)
            }
        }
    }
    
    // prints Villy, Spot
    for dog in xmlDoc.root["dogs"]["dog"].all! {
        if let color = dog.attributes["color"] {
            if color == "white" {
                print(dog.string)
            }
        }
    }
    
    // prints Tinna
    if let cats = xmlDoc.root["cats"]["cat"].all(withValue: "Tinna") {
        for cat in cats {
            print(cat.string)
        }
    }
    
    // prints Caesar
    if let cats = xmlDoc.root["cats"]["cat"].all(withAttributes: ["breed" : "Domestic", "color" : "yellow"]) {
        for cat in cats {
            print(cat.string)
        }
    }
    
    // prints 4
    print(xmlDoc.root["cats"]["cat"].count)
    
    // prints Siberian
    print(xmlDoc.root["cats"]["cat"].attributes["breed"]!)
    
    // prints <cat breed="Siberian" color="lightgray">Tinna</cat>
    print(xmlDoc.root["cats"]["cat"].xmlCompact)
    
    // prints Optional(AEXML.AEXMLError.elementNotFound)
    print(xmlDoc["NotExistingElement"].error)
}
catch {
    print("\(error)")
}

Write XML

Let's say this is some SOAP XML request you need to generate.
Well, you could just build ordinary string for that?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
  <soap:Header>
    <m:Trans xmlns:m="http://www.w3schools.com/transaction/" soap:mustUnderstand="1">234</m:Trans>
  </soap:Header>
  <soap:Body>
    <m:GetStockPrice>
      <m:StockName>AAPL</m:StockName>
    </m:GetStockPrice>
  </soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

Yes, but, you can also do it in a more structured and elegant way with AEXML:

// create XML Document
let soapRequest = AEXMLDocument()
let attributes = ["xmlns:xsi" : "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance", "xmlns:xsd" : "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"]
let envelope = soapRequest.addChild(name: "soap:Envelope", attributes: attributes)
let header = envelope.addChild(name: "soap:Header")
let body = envelope.addChild(name: "soap:Body")
header.addChild(name: "m:Trans", value: "234", attributes: ["xmlns:m" : "http://www.w3schools.com/transaction/", "soap:mustUnderstand" : "1"])
let getStockPrice = body.addChild(name: "m:GetStockPrice")
getStockPrice.addChild(name: "m:StockName", value: "AAPL")

// prints the same XML structure as original
print(soapRequest.xml)

Installation

Swift Package Manager:

 .package(url: "https://github.com/tadija/AEXML.git", from: "4.6.1")

Carthage:
```
 github "tadija/AEXML"
```
CocoaPods:
```
 pod 'AEXML'
```

License

AEXML is released under the MIT license. See LICENSE for details.

pakmee/AEXML