Space in node parsed as empty hash? Can this be changed to string, or nil?

[twigbranch]

When parsing nodes like

<testnode> </testnode>

Saxerator (using ox) returns an empty hash. Is there a way to return a string, or nil? (instead of manually converting empty hashes to a string or nil? Other parsers I've used don't convert to an empty hash.

[fanantoxa]

@twigbranch Cloud you give me an example please? Because actually you should get Saxerator::Builder::StringElement instance, so if you need a String type you should call .to_s. (check last QA in FAQ) But if it's not, please, give me example and I'll check what is wrong here.

[twigbranch]

file at filepath:

<parent>
   <child1>child1 text</child1>
   <child2> </child2>
</parent>

parser = Saxerator.parser(File.new(filepath)) do |config|
      config.adapter = :ox
end

p=parser.for_tag('parent')

p.first
=> {"child1"=>"child1 text", "child2"=>{}}

p.first['child1'].class
=> Saxerator::Builder::StringElement

p.first['child2'].class
=> Saxerator::Builder::EmptyElement

[fanantoxa]

@twigbranch You probably using a v0.9.8 or older. There was a changes related to that: Here So Saxerator::Builder::EmptyElement doesn't exist in master. Could you try to use master branch? (we going to release version 1.0.0 soon, but 2 pull requests required)

[fanantoxa]

@twigbranch Did you have a time to check?

[twigbranch]

I installed via:

gem 'saxerator', :git => 'https://github.com/soulcutter/saxerator.git'
gem 'ox'

bundle install

Here's what I'm reportedly using now: Using saxerator 0.9.8 from https://github.com/soulcutter/saxerator.git (at master)

I get:

p.first
=> {"child1"=>"child1 text", "child2"=>{}}

p.first['child1'].class
=> Saxerator::Builder::StringElement

p.first['child2'].class
=> Saxerator::Builder::HashElement

So child2 is now ::HashElement (as opposed to EmptyElement), but why isn't it ::StringElement? Isn't it standard for parsers to return a string there?

[twigbranch]

Here's the nokogiri output - both are text nodes:

doc = File.open(filepath) { |f| Nokogiri::XML(f) }
=> #<Nokogiri::XML::Document:0x3fd290d339a0 name="document" children=[#<Nokogiri::XML::Element:0x3fd290d3366c name="parent" children=[#<Nokogiri::XML::Text:0x3fd290d3348c "\n  ">, #<Nokogiri::XML::Element:0x3fd290d333d8 name="child1" children=[#<Nokogiri::XML::Text:0x3fd290d331f8 "child1 text">]>, #<Nokogiri::XML::Text:0x3fd290d33054 "\n  ">, #<Nokogiri::XML::Element:0x3fd290d32fa0 name="child2" children=[#<Nokogiri::XML::Text:0x3fd290d32dc0 " ">]>, #<Nokogiri::XML::Text:0x3fd290d32c1c "\n">]>]>

Here's ox output:

xml = File.open(filepath).read
=> "<parent>\n  <child1>child1 text</child1>\n  <child2> </child2>\n</parent>\n"

doc = Ox.parse(xml)
=> #<Ox::Element:0x007fa52a201b70 @value="parent", @nodes=[#<Ox::Element:0x007fa52a201af8 @value="child1", @nodes=["child1 text"]>, #<Ox::Element:0x007fa52a201a58 @value="child2", @nodes=[" "]>]>

[twigbranch]

Wouldn't it make more sense to return <element />,<element></element>, <element> </element> as text, and <element><child /></element> and <element><child></child></element> as hash?

[twigbranch]

This issue is similar: https://github.com/soulcutter/saxerator/issues/12

[twigbranch]

Here's how Ruby on Rails ActiveSupport handles it:

Hash.from_xml(File.read(filepath))
=> {"parent"=>{"child1"=>"child1 text", "child2"=>" "}}

and for completely empty elements:

Hash.from_xml("<parent>\n  <child1>child1 text</child1>\n  <child2></child2>\n</parent>\n")
=> {"parent"=>{"child1"=>"child1 text", "child2"=>nil}}

and
Hash.from_xml("<parent>\n  <child1>child1 text</child1>\n  <child2 />\n</parent>\n")
=> {"parent"=>{"child1"=>"child1 text", "child2"=>nil}}

So no empty hash returned for empty, blank, or white space nodes - only string or nil.

[fanantoxa]

@twigbranch I think Saxerator::Builder::EmptyElement have to become s StringElement But something went wrong.

@soulcutter I saw your PR where you're removing EmptyElement. I think

def add_node(node)
        @text = true if node.is_a? String
        @children << node
      end

Doesn't get String type when the node contain a white space. What would you say about it? From my perspective I think it should handle it as white space.

[twigbranch]

Also, a completely empty element without even white space should be nil like ActiveSupport from_xml, no? (or at least "" text, but not a {})

[soulcutter]

I will take a look at this over the weekend. This sounds odd - I'm also curious if this is an ox-only thing (doesn't sound like it..).

This does illustrate that I need to release a new version - will probably wait to track this down to bump versions. If I understand correctly, I do believe returning a StringElement would be the proper behavior.

[twigbranch]

I tried it with the default rexml and got the same result: (::HashElement, not ::StringElement).

[fanantoxa]

@soulcutter ^ Would be nice if you find the issue and also finish one PR about return enumeration.

I'll also try to finish my changes about relapsing lambdas with abstractions. So we'll be release even first stable version of gem)

[fanantoxa]

@soulcutter Did you have a chanse to check what is wrong? I have some free time now, so if y'd explain me I can try to make a PR.