REXML and Empty-Elements

[Ryan Fitz]

Hello all,

I have been using REXML to help me merge some XML files. I noticed that
simply opening an XML document and writing it to a file will
automatically convert the blank nodes with a start-tag and an end-tag to
empty-element tags. Here is an example:

Original.xml:
<User>
<Name>John</Name>
<Address1>123 Maple Lane</Address1>
<Address2></Address2>
<City>Chicago</City>
<State>IL</State>
</User>

Basic Ruby Script:
require 'rexml/document'
xml = REXML:ocument.new(File.open("Original.xml"))
f = File.new("New.xml","w")
f.puts xml

New.xml:
<User>
<Name>John</Name>
<Address1>123 Maple Lane</Address1>
<Address2 />
<City>Chicago</City>
<State>IL</State>
</User>

In this example I would like to prevent Address2 from being modified to
use empty-element tags. I would rather it be displayed as
<Address2></Address2>. Is there a way to prevent REXML from converting
blank nodes?

Thank you for your time.


Ryan

 

[Robert Klemme]

Hello all,

I have been using REXML to help me merge some XML files. I noticed that
simply opening an XML document and writing it to a file will
automatically convert the blank nodes with a start-tag and an end-tag to
empty-element tags. Here is an example:

Original.xml:
<User>
<Name>John</Name>
<Address1>123 Maple Lane</Address1>
<Address2></Address2>
<City>Chicago</City>
<State>IL</State>
</User>

Basic Ruby Script:
require 'rexml/document'
xml = REXML:ocument.new(File.open("Original.xml"))
f = File.new("New.xml","w")
f.puts xml

Better use the block form of File.open here.

New.xml:
<User>
<Name>John</Name>
<Address1>123 Maple Lane</Address1>
<Address2 />
<City>Chicago</City>
<State>IL</State>
</User>

In this example I would like to prevent Address2 from being modified to
use empty-element tags. I would rather it be displayed as
<Address2></Address2>. Is there a way to prevent REXML from converting
blank nodes?

There is no point in doing this since both representations are
equivalent from an XML point of view. I don't believe there is such a
mechanism. What does REXML's documentation say?

Cheers

robert