Deepcopy on XML node in python2.2 problem

S

sag

Pythonistas,

I have been using python 2.1 on a windows platform to develop some
xml processing classes. The input xml can be such that I want to
take out parts of its and convert it to a text representation and put
the text back in as a single 'text' node. I am using
_xmlplus.minidom.

I am now moving the code to a Red Hat Linux machine with python 2.2,
and I am getting an error that doesn't occur with the exact same code
on the python 2.1 machine. See below for output from the two
platforms.

Basically, I locate the base of the subnode tree that I want to
convert and I do a deep copy on the node tree and then I convert that
copy to a new xml object and get the string version of it back. The
problem seems to be in deepcopy. On windows, it returns a copy of
the subnode tree that has a parent that is a DOM element and that has
the children I would expect from the copy, while on the python2.2 the
parent is a text node and the children are completely different. If I
don't use deepcopy, parts of the original tree are removed when I do
an appendChild call on the new subnode xml object.

I am a very intermediate python programmer and I don't know enough to
try to chase down what's going on in deepcopy. Does anyone who is a
guru have any ideas on what might be causing this? Is it a
difference between windows/linux or between python2.1 and 2.2?

My goal is to convert a subnode tree to a single text node where the
subnode tree is converted totally to xml text string.

See below for a somewhat abbreviated case that shows the difference.
If I run this code on python 2.1 on windows, it runs. If I run it on
python 2.2 on linux, it fails.

sue

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Code example:
# test deepcopy using minidom xml
# the point of all this is to carve out subsections of an xml
# and convert it to text that can stand alone as xml
# this is a small part of a set of classes for special xml handling
from _xmlplus.dom.minidom import parseString
from _xmlplus.dom import minidom
import copy
argName = 'arg'
def _convert2Text(child):
xmlText = "<Sub/>"
temp = parseString(xmlText)
root = temp.documentElement
for subNode in child.childNodes:
cp = copy.deepcopy(subNode)
print 'copy', cp
print 'parent of copy', cp.parentNode
print 'parent children', cp.parentNode.childNodes
root.appendChild(cp)
subText = temp.toxml()
subText = subText.encode("utf-8")
return subText
def _parseNode(node):
results = {}
if node.nodeType == node.ELEMENT_NODE:
name = str(node.nodeName)
attr = node.getAttribute('t')
if not node.hasChildNodes():
results[name] = ''
elif len(node.childNodes) == 1 and
node.childNodes[0].nodeType == node.TEXT_NODE:
value = str(node.childNodes[0].nodeValue)
results[name] = value, attr
else:
for n in node.childNodes:
results.update( _parseNode(n))
else:
pass
return results
# convert it to modified version
def getArgs():
root = _xmlDOM.documentElement
argList = []
for child in root.childNodes:
if child.nodeName == argName:
nodeValues = _parseNode(child)
if len(nodeValues) == 1:
try:
argList.append(nodeValues[argName])
except KeyError:
subText = _convert2Text(child)
argList.append(subText)
else:
subText = _convert2Text(child)
argList.append(subText)
return argList

if __name__ == '__main__':
print '+' * 20
fn = r"<function>Aggregate</function>"
kwds = r'<keywords><timeStep>1</timeStep></keywords>'
kwds = ""
tfn = fn + kwds
fn = r"<function>TransformDS</function>"
args = r'<arg>%s</arg>' % tfn
f = "<PythonCall>" + fn + args + "</PythonCall>"
xmlText = "%s%s" % (r'<?xml version="1.0"?>', f)
_xmlDOM = parseString(xmlText)
print _xmlDOM.toxml()
args = getArgs()
print 'after convert'
print args
# end code

=======================
Results:
Ouput from python 2.1 on windows
+++++++++++++++++++++++
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<PythonCall><function>TransformDS</function><arg><function>Aggregate</
function></arg></PythonCall>
copy <DOM Element: function at 20644036>
parent of copy <DOM Element: arg at 20002972>
parent children [<DOM Element: function at 20644036>]
after convert
['<?xml version="1.0" ?>\n<Sub><function>Aggregate</function></Sub>']

++++++++++++++++++++++++
Output from python 2.2 on red hat linux
++++++++++++++++++++++++
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<PythonCall><function>TransformDS</function><arg><function>Aggregate</
function></arg></PythonCall>
copy <DOM Element: function at 141868116>
parent of copy <DOM Element: arg at 142546132>
parent children [<DOM Text node "TransformD...">]
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/sag/testBad.py", line 23, in _convert2Text
root.appendChild(cp)
File "/usr/lib/python2.2/site-packages/_xmlplus/dom/minidom.py",
line 171, in appendChild
node.parentNode.removeChild(node)
File "/usr/lib/python2.2/site-packages/_xmlplus/dom/minidom.py",
line 212, in removeChild
self.childNodes.remove(oldChild)
ValueError: list.remove(x): x not in list
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
473,755
Messages
2,569,536
Members
45,007
Latest member
obedient dusk

Latest Threads

Top