Awesome

Erlsom

• Introduction
  • Example XML document
• SAX Mode
  • SAX Events
• Simple DOM Mode
• Data Binder Mode
• Installation
• Examples
• Character encoding
• Creation of atoms
• Limitations
  • XML Schema elements
  • XML Schema Attributes
• Reference

<a name="introduction">Introduction</a>

Erlsom is an Erlang library to parse (and generate) XML documents.

Erlsom can be used in a couple of very different modes:

• As a SAX parser. This is a more or less standardized model for parsing XML. Every time the parser has processed a meaningful part of the XML document (such as a start tag), it will tell your application about this. The application can process this information (potentially in parallel) while the parser continues to parse the rest of the document. The SAX parser will allow you to efficiently parse XML documents of arbitrary size, but it may take some time to get used to it. If you invest some effort, you may find that it fits very well with the Erlang programming model (personally I have always been very happy about my choice to use a SAX parser as the basis for the rest of Erlsom).

• As a simple sort of DOM parser. Erlsom can translate your XML to the ‘simple form’ that is used by Xmerl. This is a form that is easy to understand, but you have to search your way through the output to get to the information that you need.

• As a ‘data binder’ Erlsom can translate the XML document to an Erlang data structure that corresponds to an XML Schema. It has the advantage over the SAX parser that it validates the XML document, and that you know exactly what the layout of the output will be. This makes it easy to access the elements that you need in a very direct way. (Look here for a general description of XML data binding.)

For all modes the following applies:

• If the document is too big to fit into memory, or if the document arrives in some kind of data stream, it can be passed to the parser in blocks of arbitrary size.

• The parser can work directly on binaries. There is no need to transform binaries to lists before passing the data to Erlsom. Using binaries as input has a positive effect on the memory usage and on the speed (provided that you are using Erlang 12B or later - if you are using an older Erlang version the speed will be better if you transform binaries to lists). The binaries can be latin-1, utf-8 or utf-16 encoded.

• The parser has an option to produce output in binary form (only the character data: names of elements and attributes are always strings). This may be convenient if you want to minimize the memory usage, and/or if you need the result in binary format for further processing. Note that it will slow down the parser slightly. If you select this option the encoding of the result will be utf-8 (irrespective of the encoding of the input document).

<a name="example">Example XML document</a>

Unless otherwise indicated, the examples in the next sections will use the following, very simple XML document as input:

<foo attr="baz"><bar>x</bar><bar>y</bar></foo>

This document is stored in a file called "minimal.xml", and read into a variable called Xml by the following commands in the shell:

1> {ok, Xml} = file:read_file("minimal.xml").
{ok,<<"<foo attr=\"baz\"><bar>x</bar><bar>y</bar></foo>\r\n">>}

The following, corresponding XSD ("minimal.xsd") is used in the first example for the data binder:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <xsd:element name="foo" type="foo_type"/>
    <xsd:complexType name="foo_type">
         <xsd:sequence>
             <xsd:element name="bar" type="xsd:string"
             maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
         </xsd:sequence>
         <xsd:attribute name="attr" type="xsd:string"/>
     </xsd:complexType>
</xsd:schema>

<a name="sax">SAX Mode</a>

The example below shows how the example XML can be processed using the SAX parser:

2> erlsom:parse_sax(Xml, [], fun(Event, Acc) -> io:format("~p~n", [Event]), Acc end).
startDocument
{startElement,[],"foo",[],[{attribute,"attr",[],[],"baz"}]}
{startElement,[],"bar",[],[]}
{characters,"x"}
{endElement,[],"bar",[]}
{startElement,[],"bar",[],[]}
{characters,"y"}
{endElement,[],"bar",[]}
{endElement,[],"foo",[]}
endDocument
{ok,[],"\r\n"}

The function erlsom:parse_sax takes as its arguments: the XML document, an accumulator value and an ‘event processing function’. This function will process the parts of the XML documents that have been parsed. In this example, this function simply prints these events.

The next example does something slightly more meaningful: it counts the number of times the "bar" element occurs in the XML document. Ok, maybe not very useful, but at least this example will produce a result, not only side effects.

3> CountBar = fun(Event, Acc) -> case Event of {startElement, _, "bar", _, _} -> Acc + 1; _ -> Acc end end.
#Fun<erl_eval.12.113037538>

4> erlsom:parse_sax(Xml, 0, CountBar).
{ok,2,"\r\n"}

To describe it in a rather formal way: parse_sax(Xml, Acc0, Fun) calls Fun(Event, AccIn) on successive ‘XML events’ that result from parsing Xml, starting with AccIn == Acc0. Fun/2 must return a new accumulator which is passed to the next call. The function returns {ok, AccOut, Tail}, where AccOut is the final value of the accumulator and Tail the list of characters that follow after the last tag of the XML document. In this example AccOut == 2, since the tag occurs twice. (Notice how similar this is to lists:foldl(Fun, Acc0, Sax_events), assuming that Sax_events is the list of Sax events - I more or less copied this description from the documentation of the lists module.)

It may still not be very clear to you how this SAX parser can be used to produce useful results. There are some additional examples in the examples directory of the Erlsom distribution. If you are still not convinced you can try to decipher the source code for the ‘data binder’ mode (erlsom_parse.erl) - this was also built on top of the SAX parser.

<a name="sax_events">SAX Events</a>

startDocument

endDocument

Will NOT be sent out in case of an error

{startPrefixMapping, Prefix, URI}

Begin the scope of a prefix - URI namespace mapping Will be sent immediately before the corresponding startElement event.

{endPrefixMapping, Prefix}

End the scope of a prefix - URI namespace mapping Will be sent immediately before the corresponding endElement event.

{startElement, Uri, LocalName, Prefix, [Attributes]}

The beginning of an element. There will be a corresponding endElement (even when the element is empty). All three name components will be provided.

[Attributes] is a list of attribute records, see sax.hrl. Namespace attributes (xmlns:*) will not be reported. There will be NO attribute values for defaulted attributes!

Providing 'Prefix' in stead of 'Qualified name' is probably not quite in line with the SAX spec, but it appears to be more convenient.

{endElement, Uri, LocalName, Prefix}

The end of an element.

{characters, Characters}

Character data. All character data will be in one chunk, except if there is a CDATA section included inside a character section. In that case there will be separate events for the characters before the CDATA, the CDATA section and the characters following it (if any, of course).

{ignorableWhitespace, Characters}

If a character data section (as it would be reported by the 'characters' event, see above) consists ONLY of whitespace, it will be reported as ignorableWhitespace.

{processingInstruction, Target, Data}

{error, Description}

{internalError, Description}

<a name="DOM">Simple DOM Mode</a>

This mode translates the XML document to a generic data structure. It doesn’t really follow the DOM standard, but in stead it provides a very simple format. In fact, it is very similar to format that is defined as the ‘simple-form’ in the Xmerl documentation.

An example will probably be sufficient to explain it:

erlsom:simple_form(Xml).
{ok,{"foo",
     [{"attr","baz"}],
     [{"bar",[],["x"]},{"bar",[],["y"]}]},
    "\r\n"}

Result = {ok, Element, Tail}, where Element = {Tag, Attributes, Content}, Tag is a string (there is an option that allows you to format Tag differently, see the reference section below), Attributes = [{AttributeName, Value}], and Content is a list of Elements and/or strings.

<a name="binder">Data Binder Mode</a>

In this mode, Erlsom parses XML documents that are associated with an XSD (or Schema). It checks whether the XML document conforms to the Schema, and it translates the document to an Erlang structure that is based on the types defined in the Schema. This section tries to explain the relation between the Schema and the Erlang data structure that is produced by Erlsom.

First a quick example using the same XML that was used for the other modes. Before we can parse the document we need to ‘compile’ the XML Schema (similar to how you might compile a regular expression).

10> {ok, Model} = erlsom:compile_xsd_file("minimal.xsd").
{ok,{model,[{typ…

Now you can use this compiled model:

11> {ok, Result, _} = erlsom:scan(Xml, Model).
{ok,{foo_type,[],"baz",["x","y"]},"\r\n"}

Assuming that you have defined a suitable record #foo_type{} (erlsom:write_xsd_hrl_file() can do it for you), you can use in your program (won’t work in the shell):

BarValues = Result#foo_type.bar,
AttrValue = Result#foo_type.attr,

Nice and compact, as you see, but it may need more explanation. I will use a more complex example from the XML Schema Primer (XML Schema Part 0: Primer Second Edition).

<xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">

  <xsd:annotation>
    <xsd:documentation xml:lang="en">
     Purchase order schema for Example.com.
     Copyright 2000 Example.com. All rights reserved.
    </xsd:documentation>
  </xsd:annotation>

  <xsd:element name="purchaseOrder" type="PurchaseOrderType"/>

  <xsd:element name="comment" type="xsd:string"/>

  <xsd:complexType name="PurchaseOrderType">
    <xsd:sequence>
      <xsd:element name="shipTo" type="USAddress"/>
      <xsd:element name="billTo" type="USAddress"/>
      <xsd:element ref="comment" minOccurs="0"/>
      <xsd:element name="items"  type="Items"/>
    </xsd:sequence>
    <xsd:attribute name="orderDate" type="xsd:date"/>
  </xsd:complexType>

  <xsd:complexType name="USAddress">
    <xsd:sequence>
      <xsd:element name="name"   type="xsd:string"/>
      <xsd:element name="street" type="xsd:string"/>
      <xsd:element name="city"   type="xsd:string"/>
      <xsd:element name="state"  type="xsd:string"/>
      <xsd:element name="zip"    type="xsd:decimal"/>
    </xsd:sequence>
    <xsd:attribute name="country" type="xsd:NMTOKEN"
                   fixed="US"/>
  </xsd:complexType>

  <xsd:complexType name="Items">
    <xsd:sequence>
      <xsd:element name="item" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded">
        <xsd:complexType>
          <xsd:sequence>
            <xsd:element name="productName" type="xsd:string"/>
            <xsd:element name="quantity">
              <xsd:simpleType>
                <xsd:restriction base="xsd:positiveInteger">
                  <xsd:maxExclusive value="100"/>
                </xsd:restriction>
              </xsd:simpleType>
            </xsd:element>
            <xsd:element name="USPrice"  type="xsd:decimal"/>
            <xsd:element ref="comment"   minOccurs="0"/>
            <xsd:element name="shipDate" type="xsd:date" minOccurs="0"/>
          </xsd:sequence>
          <xsd:attribute name="partNum" type="SKU" use="required"/>
        </xsd:complexType>
      </xsd:element>
    </xsd:sequence>
  </xsd:complexType>

  <!-- Stock Keeping Unit, a code for identifying products -->
  <xsd:simpleType name="SKU">
    <xsd:restriction base="xsd:string">
      <xsd:pattern value="\d{3}-[A-Z]{2}"/>
    </xsd:restriction>
  </xsd:simpleType>

</xsd:schema>

example 1: po.xsd

This XSD can be processed by Erlsom: the compiler accepts it, and the parser can parse instances (XML documents) that conform to this schema.

Like the Primer, I will use po.xml as an example XML document.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<purchaseOrder orderDate="1999-10-20">
   <shipTo country="US">
      <name>Alice Smith</name>
      <street>123 Maple Street</street>
      <city>Mill Valley</city>
      <state>CA</state>
      <zip>90952</zip>
   </shipTo>
   <billTo country="US">
      <name>Robert Smith</name>
      <street>8 Oak Avenue</street>
      <city>Old Town</city>
      <state>PA</state>
      <zip>95819</zip>
   </billTo>
   <comment>Hurry, my lawn is going wild<!/comment>
   <items>
      <item partNum="872-AA">
         <productName>Lawnmower</productName>
         <quantity>1</quantity>
         <USPrice>148.95</USPrice>
         <comment>Confirm this is electric</comment>
      </item>
      <item partNum="926-AA">
         <productName>Baby Monitor</productName>
         <quantity>1</quantity>
         <USPrice>39.98</USPrice>
         <shipDate>1999-05-21</shipDate>
      </item>
   </items>
</purchaseOrder>

example 2: po.xml

Translating po.xml using erlsom:scan/2 will result in:

{'PurchaseOrderType',[],
                     "1999-10-20",
                     {'USAddress',[],
                                  "US",
                                  "Alice Smith",
                                  "123 Maple Street",
                                  "Mill Valley",
                                  "CA",
                                  "90952"},
                     {'USAddress',[],
                                  "US",
                                  "Robert Smith",
                                  "8 Oak Avenue",
                                  "Old Town",
                                  "PA",
                                  "95819"},
                     "Hurry, my lawn is going wild!",
                     {'Items',[],
                              [{'Items/item',
                                     [],
                                     "872-AA",
                                     "Lawnmower",
                                     "1",
                                     "148.95",
                                     "Confirm this is electric",
                                     undefined},
                               {'Items/item',
                                     [],
                                     "926-AA",
                                     "Baby Monitor",
                                     "1",
                                     "39.98",
                                     undefined,
                                     "1999-05-21"}]}}

example 3: output for po.xml

The output can be interpreted as a structure built from Erlang records. The definition of these records can either be generated by erlsom:write_xsd_hrl_file/3, or you can define them yourself (or a combination: you can run write_xsd_hrl_file and change a few fieldnames and add some defaults). An extract of the .hrl file generated by write_xsd_hrl_file/3:

-record('USAddress', {anyAttribs :: anyAttribs(),
        country :: string() | undefined,
        name :: string(),
        street :: string(),
        city :: string(),
        state :: string(),
        zip :: string()}).

-type 'USAddress'() :: #'USAddress'{}.


-record('PurchaseOrderType', {anyAttribs :: anyAttribs(),
        orderDate :: string() | undefined,
        shipTo :: 'USAddress'(),
        billTo :: 'USAddress'(),
        comment :: string() | undefined,
        items :: 'Items'()}).

-type 'PurchaseOrderType'() :: #'PurchaseOrderType'{}.

example 4: record definitions for po.xsd as generated by write_xsd_hrl_file/3

As can be seen from the example:

• attributes are included in the records as the first elements (country, partNum)
• elements that are optional (minOccurs="0") for which no value is provided get the value undefined (comment, shipDate).
• elements that can occur more than once (maxOccurs > 0 or unbounded) are translated to a list (listOfItem).
• every record has ‘anyAttribs’ as its first element. If the Schema allows ‘anyAttributes’, and if these are present in the XML document, then the values will be found here (as a list of attribute-value pairs). Note that this can be avoided by passing the option {include_any_attribs, false} to erlsom:compile_xsd_file: in that case the ‘anyAttribs’ element will not be there.

It should be noted that there is quite a bit of information in po.xsd that is not used by erlsom:

• Only in a limited number of situations does erlsom do type checking and translation: only if an element is defined as integer, int, boolean or QName without any further restrictions or extensions. The ‘quantity’ element doesn’t meet these conditions, since (a) it is a positiveInteger, and (b) it is restricted. A value for the quantity element of Ten or -1 would not result in an error or warning, and the string value is not translated to an Erlang integer. This also applies for the user defined simpleTypes, like SKU in the example.

  Note that this behaviour can be modified by passing the option {strict, true} to erlsom:compile_xsd_file: in that case more types will be checked and mapped to Erlang types, for example float and long. This also applies to positiveInteger, but since the limitation that this only works for types without restrictions or extensions still holds, it would not make any difference for the value of ‘quantity’.

It should be noted that there is quite a bit of information in po.xsd that is not used by erlsom:

• Only in a limited number of situations does erlsom do type checking and translation: only if an element is defined as integer, int, boolean or QName without any further restrictions or extensions. The ‘quantity’ element doesn’t meet these conditions, since (a) it is a positiveInteger, and (b) it is restricted. A value for the quantity element of Ten or -1 would not result in an error or warning, and the string value is not translated to an Erlang integer. This also applies for the user defined simpleTypes, like SKU in the example.
• The fixed attribute is ignored. If there would have been another value than US in po.xml, this would have been accepted without warning or error.
• The annotation is ignored (obviously).

In example 5 a number of additional features is illustrated:

• elements that belong to a namespace are prefixed in the result. The prefix is determined by a parameter of the function that compiles the XSD.
• anonymous types (in the example: spouse) get a name that include the ‘path’, in order to avoid name conflicts.
• types (‘records’) are created for choices - the type indicates which alternative was selected (the record b:personType-hobby shows that "Mowing the lawn" is a hobby, not a profession).

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
            targetNamespace="http://www.example.org"
            xmlns="http://www.example.org"
            elementFormDefault="qualified">
  <xsd:element name="person" type="personType"/>
  <xsd:complexType name="personType">
     <xsd:sequence>
       <!-- an element with an attribute -->
       <xsd:element name = "id">
         <xsd:complexType>
           <xsd:simpleContent>
             <xsd:extension base = "xsd:string">
               <xsd:attribute name = "type" type = "xsd:string"/>
               <!-- allow other attributes-->
               <xsd:anyAttribute namespace="##other"/>
             </xsd:extension>
           </xsd:simpleContent>
         </xsd:complexType>
       </xsd:element>

       <!-- choice -->
       <xsd:choice>
         <xsd:element name="profession" type="xsd:string"/>
         <xsd:element name="hobby" type="xsd:string"/>
       </xsd:choice>

       <!-- group -->
       <xsd:group  ref="name"/>

       <!-- local type -->
       <xsd:element name="spouse" xsi:nillable="true">
         <xsd:complexType>
           <xsd:sequence>
             <xsd:element  name="name" type="xsd:string"/>
             <xsd:element  name="age" type="xsd:string"/>
           </xsd:sequence>
         </xsd:complexType>
       </xsd:element>

    </xsd:sequence>
  </xsd:complexType>

  <xsd:group name="name">
    <xsd:sequence>
      <!-- nillable element -->
      <xsd:element name="firstName"
                   type="xsd:string" nillable="true"/>
      <xsd:element name="lastName" type="xsd:string"/>
    </xsd:sequence>
  </xsd:group>

</xsd:schema>

example 5: misc.xsd: namespace, choice, group

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<person xmlns="http://www.example.org">
  <id type="passport">123</id>
  <hobby>mowing the lawn</hobby>
  <firstName>Jan</firstName>
  <lastName>Pietersen</lastName>
  <spouse>
      <name>Jet Pietersen</name>
      <age>33</age>
  </spouse>
</person>

example 6: misc.xml

The XSD can be compiled by the command

> {ok, Model} = erlsom:compile_xsd_file("misc.xsd",
                                        [{prefix, "b"}]).

After that the XML can be parsed using the command

> {ok, Out, Rest} = erlsom:scan_file("misc_example.xml", Model).

Out is the output shown below, and Rest is a string of the characters that may follow after the end tag of the XML.

{'b:personType',[],
                {'b:personType/id',[], "passport","123"},
                {'b:personType-hobby',[], "mowing the lawn"},
                {'b:name',[], "Jan","Pietersen"},
                {'b:personType/spouse',[], "Jet Pietersen","33"}}

example 7: output for misc.xml

To show some additional features, have a look at the result of parsing misc_2.xml.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<person xmlns="http://www.example.org"
        xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xmlns:passport="some_uri">
  <id type="passport" passport:issued="2011">123</id>
  <hobby>mowing the lawn</hobby>
  <firstName xsi:nil="true"/>
  <lastName>Pietersen</lastName>
  <spouse xsi:nil="true"></spouse>
</person>

example 8: misc_2.xml

{'b:personType',
   [],
   {'b:personType/id',
     [{{"issued","some_uri"},"2011"}],"passport","123"},
      {'b:personType-hobby',[],"mowing the lawn"},
      {'b:name',[],nil,"Pietersen"},
      {nil,{'b:personType/spouse',
            [{{"nil","http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"},
              "true"}],
            undefined,
            undefined}}}

example 9: output for misc_2.xml

It shows how "nil" values are represented - note that there are 2 different cases: for a simple type the value nil is used, but for a complex type {nil, Record} is used, where Record is a record of the same type that would be used if a non-nil value would have been provided. The reason for this slightly awkward pattern is that a nil-value may still have attributes.

Example 9 also shows what happens to "any-attributes" ("issued", in this case): these are put into the first field of the record.

A note about schema inclusion

Be careful when working with complex schemas since Erlsom does not handle duplicate inclusions. You may end up with duplicate types!

However, duplicate inclusions can be resolved, e.g. by either editing the schemas or by detecting duplicate includes in a custom include_fun (which should then return an empty schema).

<a name="installation">Installation</a>

The easiest way to install Erlsom is probably to use rebar.

Klacke (Claes Wickstrom) has provided a makefile. This should enable Unix users to install Erlsom easily.

Anyway, even for Windows users and without rebar, installing erlsom should be straightforward. One way to do it is described below.

• Put all the files into the directory ROOT/lib/erlsom-1.2.1/src, where ROOT is the directory that contains Erlang (C:\Program Files\erl5.6.1 on my Windows system).
• Start the Erlang shell
• Change the working directory to ROOT/lib/erlsom-1.2.1/src:

1> cd('../lib/erlsom-1.2.1/src').
C:/Program Files/erl5.6.1/lib/erlsom-1.2.1/src
ok

• Compile the source files:

2> c("erlsom"),
c("erlsom_parse"),
c("erlsom_lib"),
c("erlsom_compile"),
c("erlsom_write"),
c("erlsom_parseXsd"),
c("erlsom_sax"),
c("erlsom_pass2"),
c("erlsom_writeHrl"),
c("erlsom_add"),
c("erlsom_ucs"),
c("erlsom_sax_utf8"),
c("erlsom_sax_latin1"),
c("erlsom_sax_latin9"),
c("erlsom_sax_utf16be"),
c("erlsom_sax_utf16le"),
c("erlsom_sax_list"),
c("erlsom_sax_lib"),
c("erlsom_simple_form").

• Move the .beam files to ROOT/lib/erlsom-1.2.1/ebin.

• Alternatively you can use emake for the last 2 steps:

2> make:all([{outdir, "../ebin"}]).

<a name="examples">Examples</a>

The distribution includes 7 examples:

• erlsom_example: this shows the use of the basic functions to compile an XSD, to parse an XML document and to write an XML document.

  To run the example from the Erlang shell: cd to the directory that contains the code (something like cd('lib/erlsom-1.2.1/examples/erlsom_example').), compile (c("erlsom_example").) and run (erlsom_example:run().).

• erlsom_sax_example: this shows the features of the SAX parser.

• example1: this example has 2 purposes:

  • It shows how easy Erlsom makes it for you to use an XML configuration file. The configuration file describes a set of 10 test cases, which are run by this example. The configuration file is described by "example1.xsd". Compiling this XSD and then parsing the configuration file ("example1.xml") gives you access to an Erlang structure of records that corresponds with the XML schema.

  • It shows how 11 different schemas (names "abb1.xsd" through "abb11.xsd") can describe the same XML document (named "abb.xml"), and it shows the output that results from running Erlsom on this file using these schema’s. To run the example for XSD abb1.xsd, use the command example1:test_erlsom("abb1").

• soap_example: this shows how to use the erlsom:add_xsd_file() function, and it gives an example how you might parse and generate SOAP messages.

• continuation: this shows how to use the sax parser with a ‘continuation-function’. This can be used for parsing of very big files or streams. The continuation function should return a block of data; this will be parsed (calling the sax callback function when appropriate) and after that the function is called again to get the next block of data. The example shows how a file of arbitrary size can be parsed. The comments in the code should help you to understand and use this function.

• complex_form: shows how you could create a back-end to the sax parser that produces the same output as Xmerl, and how you could then use the Xpath functions that Xmerl provides.

• book_store; actually three examples, demonstrating the three modes that erlsom supports. The third example shows how you might combine different modes within a function that scans a file.

<a name="encoding">Character encoding</a>

The sax parser accepts binaries as input. It will recognize UTF-8 and UTF-16 encoding by looking at the byte order mark and the first character of the document. Additionally ISO-8859-1 and ISO-8859-15 encoding is recognized if this is indicated by the XML declaration. If the XML declaration specifies another character set, an error will be thrown. It should not be very difficult to add support for other character sets, however.

As specified by the XML standard, the default encoding is UTF-8. If the first byte of the document is a ‘<’ ASCII character and if the XML declaration does not specify anything else, it will be assumed that the encoding is UTF-8.

The result of erlsom:write is a list of Unicode code points. Normally this will have to be encoded before it can be used. The function erlsom_ucs:to_utf8/1 can be used to do this.

<a name="atoms">Creation of atoms</a>

Especially in the context of internet applications, it may be a problem if new atoms are created as a result of communication based on XML (SOAP, XML-RPC, AJAX). The number of atoms that can be created within the Erlang runtime environment is limited, and uncontrolled creation of atoms may cause the system to crash.

Erlsom:scan/2 does not create new atoms. It uses string_to_existing_atom to create the atoms that are used in the records.

Erlsom:compile_xsd does create atoms. However, usually this function won’t be called with arbitrary end user input as its argument, so normally this should not be a problem.

<a name="limitations">Limitations</a>

Some checks/validity constraints are accepted in the XSD, but not enforced during parsing:

• all simple types are interpreted as string. This applies to the built in types (float, positiveInteger, gYear etc), and also to types that are restricted (using 'facets') or extended (for example 'union' types). The only exceptions are Integer, Boolean and QName, these are translated.

  If the option {strict, true} is used when compiling the XSD, a number of additional types will be translated (and checked): Float, Double and all types that are derived from the Integer type, such as positiveInteger, nonNegativeInteger, Long, unsignedLong etc.

• Key, Unique etc. are not supported - if these elements occur in the XSD, they are simply ignored.

The SAX parser has the following limitations:

• It doesn’t support external entities.
• It doesn’t do any validation: if the XML includes a DTD, this is simply ignored.

The data binder has the following additional limitation:

• Names of elements and attributes cannot contain characters outside the Erlang character set (because they are translated to atoms).

<a name="elements">XML Schema elements</a>

<a name="attributes">XML Schema Attributes</a>

Reference

See Reference.