hugml

HugML.js
========
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HugML.js is an XML parsing and serializing/stringifying library for JavaScript based on [Google's GData][gdata] and [BadgerFish][badgerfish] conversion conventions. It supports namespaces and namespace aliasing to make working with more complex XML convenient. The ML at the end of HugML stands for "Markup Language" — a markup language of angled hugs (<<<>>>). :)

[npm-badge]: https://img.shields.io/npm/v/hugml.svg
[travis-badge]: https://travis-ci.org/moll/js-hugml.svg?branch=master
[gdata]: https://developers.google.com/gdata/docs/json?csw=1
[badgerfish]: http://badgerfish.ning.com

$3

See below for a description of the entire format, but for a quick example, take the following XML:

``xml



John
13



Mary
42


`

With proper namespace aliasing configuration, you can get back the following plain object, regardless of what namespace aliases the original XML used. That's especially useful if the XML input is out of your control and you can't depend on it always having the same aliases.

`json
{
"version": "1.0",
"encoding": "UTF-8",

"people": {
"xmlns": "urn:example:people",
"xmlns:ns0": "urn:example:properties",

"person": [{
"sex": "male",
"props$name": {"$": "John"},
"props$age": {"$": "13"}
}, {
"sex": "female",
"props$name": {"$": "Mary"},
"props$age": {"$": "42"}
}]
}
}
`


Installing
----------
`sh
npm install hugml
`

HugML.js follows semantic versioning, so feel free to depend on its major version with something like >= 1.0.0 < 2 (a.k.a ^1.0.0).


Using
-----
`javascript
var Hugml = require("hugml")

Hugml.parse(xml) // => Returns a plain object in the format described below.
Hugml.stringify(obj)
`

$3


The export from require("hugml") has both static methods shown above and can be invoked as a constructor to configure namespaces and get back an instance of Hugml.

Using the XML example above, you could set the people namespace to be the default and properties to be renamed as props:

`javascript
var Hugml = require("hugml")

var hugml = new Hugml({
"urn:example:people": "",
"urn:example:properties": "props"
})

hugml.parse(


Mary
42


)
`

Tags in the urn:example:people namespace will end up as unqualified properties (accessed obj.people.person) and tags in the urn:example:properties namespace will get the props$ prefix. Values of tag attributes will still end up as string values of properties and the textual content of a tag will end up in a property called $.

`json
{
"people": {
"xmlns": "urn:example:people",
"xmlns:ns0": "urn:example:properties",

"person": {
"sex": "female",
"props$name": {"$": "Mary"},
"props$age": {"$": "42"}
}
}
}
`

To rename the default XML namespace to something else, use "" as the namespace URI:

`javascript
var hugml = new Hugml({"": "h"})

hugml.parse(





)
`

`json
{
"h$html": {
"h$head": {
"h$title": {"$": "Page"}
}
}
}
`

For serializing a plain object back to XML, just pass it in the same format as above to Hugml.prototype.stringify. You don't need the namespace xmlns attributes. They'll be added automatically based on the namespaces you've configured and the ones you've actually used.

`js
var hugml = new Hugml({"urn:example:people": ""})
hugml.stringify({"people": {"person": {}}})
`

$3

HugML.js has preliminary support for Exclusive XML Canonicalization. It may not be fully compliant yet and doesn't play well with parsed XML, but is enough to generate valid hashes of new XML generated by HugML.js for XML Digital Signatures.

To serialize canonicalized XML from a plain object, use the canonicalize method:

`js
var hugml = new Hugml({"urn:example:people": "people"})
hugml.canonicalize({"collection": {"people$person": {}}})
`

This will then return a string following the exclusive canonicalization rules, such as minimally scoped namespaces, sorted attributes and lack of self-closing tags.

`xml



`

Occasionally you may want to canonicalize (and later hash and sign) only a subset of an XML document. Because canonicalization preserves XML tag indentation, you can't just extract that part of the object and pass it separately to the canonicalize function. You'll need to pass the entire object and a path to the node you wish to be canonicalized:

`js
var hugml = new Hugml({"urn:example:people": "people"})
var obj = {"collection": {"people$person": {name: {$: "John"}}}}
hugml.canonicalize(obj, ["collection", "people$person"])
`

This will return the canonicalized node with its closing tag properly indented:

`xml

John

`


CLI
---
There's a hugml executable installed along with the library. You can use that to do quick tests.

If you've installed HugML.js globally, invoke hugml. If you've installed it as a module in the current directory, you'll find hugml in node_modules/.bin/hugml.

Give the executable an XML file to process. If you leave it out, it'll get the XML from stdin. It'll print the output to stdout.

`sh
hugml foo.xml
curl http://example.com/foo.xml | hugml > foo.json
`

I used the executable to generate examples for this README by copying some XML to the clipboard and then used MacOS's pbpaste to pass it on:

`sh
pbpaste | hugml
`

$3


You can also set up namespace aliases for the CLI. Use the --namespace argument:

`sh
hugml --namespace http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema=schema <

end
`

It'll then print the following to stdout:
`json
{
"version": "1.0",
"encoding": "ISO-8859-1",
"schema$schema": {
"xmlns:xs": "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
}
}
`

Format
------
The general algorithm for converting between XML and JSON is as follows:

1. All XML is returned as an object with the XML pragma's attributes as properties of it:
`xml

`

Parses to:
`json
{"version": "1.0", "encoding": "UTF-8"}
`

Root tags will be added to that object as properties following the same rules as nested tags.

2. Tags will be converted to properties with the tag name as key and an object as value:
`xml



`

Parses to:
`json
{"people": {"person": {}}}
`

3. Tags in namespaces will retain their colon-separated name if it's an unknown alias:
`xml



`

Parses to:
`json
{"p:people": {"p:person": {}}}
`

If it's a renamed alias (see above for further details), its renamed alias will be concatenated with "$" and its local name:
`js
var hugml = new Hugml({"urn:example:people": "peeps"})
`

`xml



`

Parses to:
`json
{"peeps$people": {"peeps$person": {}}}
`

3. Tag attributes will be converted to string properties of the above object value:
`xml

`

Parses to:
`json
{
"person": {
"id": "42",
"sex": "male"
}
}
`

4. Tag textual content will be added as another property with the $ name:
`xml





`

Parses to:
`json
{
"html": {
"head": {
"title": {"$": "Page"}
}
}
}
`

5. Nested tags will be properties just like attributes, but following step 2, will have object values.

Note that because attributes and tags go on the same object, tags may collide with and shadow attributes. In practice that happens rarely and the convenience outweighs the risk. However, if it does affect you, you can work-around it by configuring a namespace:

`js
new Hugml({"": "h"}).parse(





)
`

`json
{
"h$html": {
"h$head": {
"title": "Collides with title tag",
"h$title": {"$:" "Page"}
}
}
}
`

The serializing format you give to Hugml.prototype.stringify matches the above and is applied in reverse.


License
-------
HugML.js is released under a Lesser GNU Affero General Public License, which in summary means:

- You can use this program for no cost.
- You can use this program for both personal and commercial reasons.
- You do not have to share your own program's code which uses this program.
- You have to share modifications (e.g. bug-fixes) you've made to this program.

For more convoluted language, see the LICENSE` file.

About
-----
[Andri Möll][moll] typed this and the code.
[Monday Calendar][monday] supported the engineering work.

If you find HugML.js needs improving, please don't hesitate to type to me now at [andri@dot.ee][email] or [create an issue online][issues].

[email]: mailto:andri@dot.ee
[issues]: https://github.com/moll/js-hugml/issues
[moll]: https://m811.com
[monday]: https://mondayapp.com