Hi,

I'm having a problem formatting the output of XMLout, and my XML file must have a specific format.

Here is my code that generates the data hash ref and then attempts to create an XML file:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings FATAL => 'uninitialized';
use XML::Simple qw(:strict);
use Data::Dumper;

$| = 1;

my %ref;

# create 1st node
push(@{$ref{'node'}},{
  'id'   => 'net_1.2.3.0',
  'desc' => 'network',
});

# create 2nd node
push(@{$ref{'node'}},{
  'id'   => 'ip_1.2.3.4',
  'desc' => 'ipaddr',
});

my $xmlParser = XML::Simple->new();

my $fh;open $fh,'>','/tmp/testfile.xml' or die "$!";

$xmlParser->XMLout(\%ref,(
  'XMLDecl'    => '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>',
  'NoAttr'     => 0,
  'KeepRoot'   => 0,
  'RootName'   => 'test',
  'OutputFile' => $fh,
  'AttrIndent' => 1,
  'KeyAttr'    => { 'node' => 'id' },
));

print Dumper \%ref;
[download]

which yields:

$VAR1 = {
          'node' => [
                      {
                        'desc' => 'network',
                        'id' => 'net_1.2.3.0'
                      },
                      {
                        'desc' => 'ipaddr',
                        'id' => 'ip_1.2.3.4'
                      }
                    ]
        };
[download]

The output file, /tmp/testfile.xml, looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<test>
  <node id="net_1.2.3.0"
        desc="network" />
  <node id="ip_1.2.3.4"
        desc="ipaddr" />
</test>
[download]

So it properly makes id an attribute of the node, but it does the same for desc. I want desc to be a nested element of the node instead. So I need it to look like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<test>
  <node id="net_1.2.3.0">
        <desc>network</desc>
  </node>
  <node id="ip_1.2.3.4">
        <desc>ipaddr</desc>
  </node>
</test>
[download]

Note that there will be keys other than desc that will potentially exist in the real hash, and those should be nested elements of the node, too.

Can anyone spot my error(s) or see what XML option I am missing/misusing? Or do I have to reconstruct my hash ref (which is fine, too)?

Btw, I make liberal use of the XML::Simple module elsewhere so I want to stay with that method.

thx!

EDIT

After reading this thread (particularly grantm's post at the end), I got my code to do what I wanted by defining the desc (and other) key values as anonymous arrays:

# create 1st node
push(@{$ref{'node'}},{
  'id'   => 'net_1.2.3.0',
  'desc' => ['network'],
  'data' => ['testdata'],
});

# create 2nd node
push(@{$ref{'node'}},{
  'id'   => 'ip_1.2.3.4',
  'desc' => ['ipaddr'],
  'data' => ['testdata2'],
});
[download]

Is this the right way to do this? I know, timtowtdi...

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