Thanks. I'll see if I can improve the docs. Especially regarding the "x-path-like" stuff. That thing is fairly underdocumented.

The code without using the "helper" would be

use XML::Rules;

my $parser = XML::Rules->new(
    stripspaces => 7,
    rules => {
        fruit => 'as array',
        fruits => 'pass no content',
        'average-color' => [
            'fruit' => sub {return 'fruit-average-color' => $_[1]->{_c
+ontent}},
            'fruits' => sub {return 'global-average-color' => $_[1]->{
+_content}},
            sub {},
        ]
    }
);

my $data = $parser->parse(\*DATA);
use Data::Dumper;

print Dumper($data);

__DATA__
<fruits>
  <average-color>purple</average-color>
  <fruit type="banana">
    <average-color>yellow</average-color>
  </fruit>
  <fruit type="apple">
    <average-color>greenish</average-color>
  </fruit>
</fruits>
[download]