For a project or two, I've been using XML::Smart for my XML needs. However, the module was last updated 7 years ago, and it's looked to have stopped developing.  It's so old that it doesn't seem to even mention XSD support, something I was looking to adapt for this new project.  There's also an annoying DESTROY bug that seems to pollute die() calls.

Since most agree that XML::LibXML is the way to go for a powerful XML interface (and supports XSD), I went that route and looked into converting what I had for XML::Smart code into XML::LibXML equivalents.  What I found was absolutely appalling, especially compared to XML::Smart:

my $sXML = XML::Smart->new('file.xml', 'SMART');
my $pXML = XML::LibXML->load_xml('file.xml');

### Basic Transversing ###
# Smart = hash trees
$sXML = $sXML->cut_root;
my $book = $sXML->{book}[3];
print $book->{title};

# LibXML = no hash trees
$pXML = $pXML->documentElement();
my $book = $pXML->childNodes()->[3];
print $book->findvalue('title');
# (though, XPaths makes it a little bit better...)
print $pXML->findvalue('book[4]/title');
##############################

### Array of values ###
# Smart = simple and elegant
$sXML = $sXML->cut_root;
my @books = $sXML->{book}('@');

# LibXML = ugly, ugly, ugly
$pXML = $pXML->documentElement();
my @books = map { $_->textContent } $pXML->find('book')->get_nodelist(
+);
##############################

### Creating a new XML doc ###
# Smart = light on the code, and doesn't require searching for 500 met
+hods
my $sXML = XML::Smart->new();
$sXML->{root}->{'xmlns:xsi'} = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-insta
+nce";
$sXML->{root}->{'xsi:schemaLocation'} = "test.xsd";
$sXML->{root}->{'data'} = "Hello World!";
$sXML->{root}->{'data'}->set_node();

# LibXML = WTF?!?
my $pXML = XML::LibXML::Document->new('1.0', 'UTF-8');
my $root = XML::LibXML::Element->new('root');
$root->setNamespace("http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance", 'xsi'
+, 0);
$root->setAttributeNS("http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance", 'xs
+i:schemaLocation', "test.xsd");
$pXML->setDocumentElement($root);
$root->addNewChild(undef, 'data')->setData("Hello World!");
##############################

### Adding a new row of elements ###
# Smart = blends in with Perl hashes
my $node = (
   'title'     => 'XML Schema',
   'author'    => 'Eric Van der Vlist',
   'publisher' => "O'Reilly Media Inc.",
   'phystype'  => 'Paperback',
   'year'      => 2002,
);
push(@{$sXML->{book}}, $node);  # (though, this is a little ugly...)

# LibXML = Bats**t crazy!
my $node = XML::LibXML::Element->new('book');
$node->addNewChild(undef, 'title')    ->setData('XML Schema');
$node->addNewChild(undef, 'author')   ->setData('Eric Van der Vlist');
$node->addNewChild(undef, 'publisher')->setData("O'Reilly Media Inc.")
+;
$node->addNewChild(undef, 'phystype') ->setData('Paperback');
$node->addNewChild(undef, 'year')     ->setData(2002);
$sXML->appendChild($node);

### if exists OR define ###
# Smart = a simple one-liner
$row->{author} ||= "Freddy Krueger";

# LibXML = crappy
$row->findvalue('author') || $row->addNewChild(undef, 'author')->setDa
+ta("Freddy Krueger");
##############################

### Searching ###
# Smart = meh...
my $book = $sXML->{book}('title', 'eq', 'XML Schema');

# LibXML = better, but...
my $book = $pXML->find('book[title="XML Schema"]');

# ...this would be really cool
my $book = $sXML->{book}('[title="XML Schema"]');
my $book = $sXML->('book[title="XML Schema"]');

##############################

[download]

Plus, the documentation for XML::LibXML is horrid!  The method reference is spread all over creation, there's too many methods, and there's no XML::LibXML::Tutorial that would actually tell you exactly what you should be doing.

Isn't there's a module to help link these together?  Give me both hash trees and the methods from LibXML.  Allow me to do something like $XML->{book}('$%').  Provide me with shorter sub names than "getElementsByLocalName".  (For god's sake, jQuery was created because people were sick of typing "document.getElementById" all the damn time.)  Make it so I don't get error messages like "Undefined subroutine &XML::LibXML::NodeList::value called at xml_parse.pl line 263".  (And this was the OTHER reason why jQuery was invented...)

Where is XML::LibXML::Smart || XML::LibXML::Tree || XML::LibXML::jQuery?

In reply to XML::LibXML - WHAR HASH TREES WHAR?! by SineSwiper

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