I'm working on a web-app which I would like to collect information and then dump to an XML file.

I started with an XML file that I created (by hand). I can easily read it in via XML::Simple which loads it into a nice data structure (dumped with Data::Dumper).

I then started to think OO, and break sub elements of the XML structure down into objects.

I've written a few Perl Objects (been a while) breaking things down into separate classes(packages).

But when I dump the base object through data dumper, it has all the "bless" structures in there. I had hoped to come up with a structure similar to the one that was created by reading in the XML file.

So I guess the question is, is there a way to create objects within Perl and have the data structure come out similar.

Simple Sample of the XML:

<map>
   <location name="test">
       <items>
             <item>
               <desc>some item1</desc>
             </item>
             <item>
               <desc>some item2</desc>
             </item>
       </items>
       <features>
            <desc>...</desc>
       </features>
    </location>
</map>
[download]

Which loads nicely into by XML::Simple:

$VAR1 = {
          'location' => {
                          'items' => {
                                       'item' => [
                                                   {
                                                     'desc' => 'some i
+tem1'
                                                   },
                                                   {
                                                     'desc' => 'some i
+tem2'
                                                   }
                                                 ]
                                     },
                          'features' => {
                                          'desc' => '...'
                                        },
                          'name' => 'test'
                        }
        };
[download]

When I try to create it with objects, and sub-objects I get the types and bless(...) stuff mixed in. The inital objects were Features and Item.

I figure I could create my own XML::Parser but that is more work than I had hoped, also Simple already does a great job.

Please help

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