Try this: 
#!/usr/bin/env perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use Data::Dumper;

my $menufile = './in.xml';
use XML::Simple qw(:strict);
my $xml = XMLin($menufile,forcearray=>['item','command','exec','menu']
+,keyattr=>[],suppressempty=>undef);
print Dumper($xml);

[download]

Which prints out (i.e., all "items" are arrays): 

$VAR1 = {
          'menu' => [
                    {
                      'item' => [
                                {
                                  'label' => ' EDM ',
                                  'type' => 'command',
                                  'exec' => [
                                            {
                                              'run' => ' edmBeta '
                                            }
                                          ]
                                },
                                {
                                  'name' => ' SoftwareMenu ',
                                  'type' => 'submenu'
                                }
                              ],
                      'name' => 'MainMenu',
                      'label' => ' OPS Menu '
                    },
                    {
                      'item' => [
                                {
                                  'name' => ' IOCMenu ',
                                  'type' => 'submenu'
                                }
                              ],
                      'name' => 'SoftwareMenu',
                      'label' => ' Software Tools '
                    }
                  ]
        };

[download]

The difference is keyattr=>[].

I honestly am not very experienced with XML::Simple, but I followed a link from the docs to XML/Simple/FAQ where it discusses "array folding".

In reply to Re: XML::Simple help by toolic
in thread XML::Simple help by mjoyce

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