I can answer at least your first question. A text() node is also a child node.

If you want to search for certain nodes, I really recommend using XPath queries.

The following code works for me and also finds the attributes. You didn't say how your code didn't find the attribute.

#!perl -w
use strict;
use XML::LibXML;
use Data::Dumper qw(Dumper);

my $parser = XML::LibXML->new;
my $doc    = $parser->load_xml(string => <<'XML') or die;
<?xml version='1.0'?>
<pets>
  <cat attribute="pussycat">
    <name>Madness</name>
    <price>150</price>
  </cat>

  <dog>
    <name>Maggie</name>
    <owner>Rosie</owner>
  </dog>

</pets>                      
XML

my $root   = $doc->documentElement();
my $value  = $root->nodeName;
 
sub buildtree
{
  my $node = shift;
  if (! ref $node) {
    print "Not a reference: '$node'\n";
    return
  };
  foreach my $child ( $node->getChildnodes )
  {
     if( $child->nodeType eq &XML_ELEMENT_NODE )
     {
        my $name;
        my $text;
        my $boolean;
        my $value;
        my $node;
        my @att;
 
       my $name      = $child->nodeName;
       my $node      = $child->nodeType;
       my $text      = $child->textContent($name);
       my @att       = map { sprintf "%s -> %s", $_->name, $_->value }
+ $child->attributes();
       my $has_children = $child->hasChildNodes();
       print "Name:$name\n";
       print "Text:$text\n";
       print "Attributes:@att\n";
       print "Has Child:$child\n";
     }
     buildtree( $child );
  }
}
buildtree($root);
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