XML::RSS save crashing

cormanaz has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Good day bros. I am trying to use XML::RSS to create and save an RSS file. I am creating the rss object with the defaults i.e. my $rss = XML::RSS->new(); which according to the docs should create an RSS 1.0 file with UTF-8 encoding. Everything goes fine in terms of creating the object, but when I issue rss->save('my.rss') I get the following errors:

$text is undefined in XML::RSS::_encode(). We don't know how to handle
+ it! at c:/Perl64/site/lib/XML/RSS/Private/Output/Base.pm line 84.
    XML::RSS::Private::Output::Base::_default_encode('XML::RSS::Privat
+e::Output::V1_0=HASH(0x58e7a98)', undef) called at c:/Perl64/site/lib
+/XML/RSS/Private/Output/Base.pm line 76
    XML::RSS::Private::Output::Base::_encode('XML::RSS::Private::Outpu
+t::V1_0=HASH(0x58e7a98)', undef) called at c:/Perl64/site/lib/XML/RSS
+/Private/Output/Base.pm line 853
    XML::RSS::Private::Output::Base::_out_seq_items('XML::RSS::Private
+::Output::V1_0=HASH(0x58e7a98)') called at c:/Perl64/site/lib/XML/RSS
+/Private/Output/V1_0.pm line 83
    XML::RSS::Private::Output::V1_0::_output_rss_middle('XML::RSS::Pri
+vate::Output::V1_0=HASH(0x58e7a98)') called at c:/Perl64/site/lib/XML
+/RSS/Private/Output/Base.pm line 1107
    XML::RSS::Private::Output::Base::_render_complete_rss_output('XML:
+:RSS::Private::Output::V1_0=HASH(0x58e7a98)') called at c:/Perl64/sit
+e/lib/XML/RSS.pm line 488
    XML::RSS::_render_complete_rss_output('XML::RSS=HASH(0x4f4ae0)', 1
+.0) called at c:/Perl64/site/lib/XML/RSS.pm line 500
    XML::RSS::as_rss_1_0('XML::RSS=HASH(0x4f4ae0)') called at c:/Perl6
+4/site/lib/XML/RSS.pm line 568
    XML::RSS::__ANON__[c:/Perl64/site/lib/XML/RSS.pm:568]() called at 
+c:/Perl64/site/lib/XML/RSS.pm line 557
    XML::RSS::_output_env('XML::RSS=HASH(0x4f4ae0)', 'CODE(0x58e7de0)'
+) called at c:/Perl64/site/lib/XML/RSS.pm line 569
    XML::RSS::as_string('XML::RSS=HASH(0x4f4ae0)') called at c:/Perl64
+/site/lib/XML/RSS.pm line 1370
[download]

I tried setting explicit encoding in the new method, and that didn't help. Anyone know what is wrong?

Comment on XML::RSS save crashing Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: XML::RSS save crashing by boftx (Deacon) on May 10, 2015 at 22:37 UTC
It looks like someone (you?) is sensibly using `use strictures;` or `use warnings FATAL => 'all';` somewhere. Where is `$text` coming from? My gut reaction is that you are unexpectedly assigning a value of `undef` to it somewhere, possibly thinking you have an empty string instead. If you are in fact making the assignment in your code you might try this: `my $text = $some_str \|\| '';` to ensure a defined value if an empty string is acceptable. If it is not, then you need to find out why the data is coming in as `undef` to begin with. Thinking about it further, I suspect you are passing `$some_str` as a parameter to a method. You could still use the `$some_str \|\| ''` construct, but it feels more like you should track down why that is `undef` to begin with. You must always remember that the primary goal is to *drain the swamp* even when you are hip-deep in alligators.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: XML::RSS save crashing by afoken (Chancellor) on May 11, 2015 at 09:46 UTC
`$text = $some_str \|\| ''` Please note that the defined-or operator is `//`, not `\|\|`. `$text = $some_str \|\| ''` silently converts 0 to the empty string due to boolean evaluation of `$some_str`, causing even more subtile bugs. The defined-or operator was introduced in perl v5.10. For older perl versions, you need to use something like `$text=defined($some_str) ? $some_str : ''`. Alexander -- Today I will gladly share my knowledge and experience, for there are no sweeter words than "I told you so". ;-)	[reply] [d/l] [select]