- new_sgml_parser(-Parser,
+Options)
- Creates a new parser. A parser can be used one or multiple times for
parsing documents or parts thereof. It may be bound to a DTD or the DTD
may be left implicit, in which case it is created from the document
prologue or parsing is performed without a DTD. Options:
- dtd(?DTD)
- If specified with an initialised DTD, this DTD is used for parsing the
document, regardless of the document prologue. If specified using as a
variable, a reference to the created DTD is returned. This DTD may be
created from the document prologue or build implicitely from the
document's content.
- free_sgml_parser(+Parser)
- Destroy all resources related to the parser. This does not destroy the
DTD if the parser was created using the
dtd(DTD) option.
- set_sgml_parser(+Parser,
+Option)
- Sets attributes to the parser. Currently defined attributes:
- file(File)
- Sets the file for reporting errors and warnings. Sets the line to 1.
- line(Line)
- Sets the current line. Useful if the stream is not at the start of the
(file) object for generating proper line-numbers.
- linepos(LinePos)
- Sets notion of the current column in the source line.
- charpos(Offset)
- Sets the current character location. See also the
file(File)
option.
- position(Position)
- Set source location from a stream position term as obtained using
stream_property(Stream, position(Position)).
- dialect(Dialect)
- Set the markup dialect. Known dialects:
- sgml
- The default dialect is to process as SGML. This implies markup is
case-insensitive and standard SGML abbreviation is allowed (abreviated
attributes and omitted tags).
- html
- html4
- This is the same as
sgml, but implies shorttag(false)
and accepts XML empty element declarations (e.g.,
<img src="..."/>).
- html5
- In addition to
html, accept attributes named data-
without warning. This value initialises the charset to UTF-8.
- xhtml
- xhtml5
- These document types are processed as
xml. Dialect
xhtml5 accepts attributes named data- without
warning.
- xml
- This dialect is selected automatically if the processing instruction
<?xml ...> is encountered. See section
3.3 for details.
- xmlns
- Process file as XML file with namespace support. See section
3.3.1 for details. See also the
qualify_attributes
option below.
- xmlns(+URI)
- Set the default namespace of the outer environment. This option is
provided to process partial XML content with proper namespace
resolution.
- xmlns(+NS, +URI)
- Specify a namespace for the outer environment. This option is provided
to process partial XML content with proper namespace resolution.
- qualify_attributes(Boolean)
- How to handle unqualified attribute (i.e. without an explicit namespace)
in XML namespace (
xmlns) mode. Default and standard
compliant is not to qualify such elements. If true, such
attributes are qualified with the namespace of the element they appear
in. This option is for backward compatibility as this is the behaviour
of older versions. In addition, the namespace document suggests
unqualified attributes are often interpreted in the namespace of their
element.
- space(SpaceMode)
- Define the initial handling of white-space in PCDATA. This attribute is
described in section 3.2.
- number(NumberMode)
- If
token (default), attributes of type number are passed as
a Prolog atom. If integer, such attributes are translated
into Prolog integers. If the conversion fails (e.g. due to overflow) a
warning is issued and the value is passed as an atom.
- encoding(Encoding)
- Set the initial encoding. The default initial encoding for XML documents
is UTF-8 and for SGML documents ISO-8859-1. XML documents may change the
encoding using the
encoding= attribute in the header.
Explicit use of this option is only required to parse non-conforming
documents. Currently accepted values are iso-8859-1 and
utf-8.
- doctype(Element)
- Defines the toplevel element expected. If a
<!DOCTYPE
declaration has been parsed, the default is the defined doctype. The
parser can be instructed to accept the first element encountered as the
toplevel using doctype(_). This feature is especially
useful when parsing part of a document (see the parse
option to
sgml_parse/2.
- get_sgml_parser(+Parser,
-Option)
- Retrieve infomation on the current status of the parser. Notably useful
if the parser is used in the call-back mode. Currently defined options:
- file(-File)
- Current file-name. Note that this may be different from the provided
file if an external entity is being loaded.
- line(-Line)
- Line-offset from where the parser started its processing in the
file-object.
- charpos(-CharPos)
- Offset from where the parser started its processing in the file-object.
See section 6.
- charpos(-Start, -End)
- Character offsets of the start and end of the source processed causing
the current call-back. Used in PceEmacs to for colouring text in
SGML and XML modes.
- source(-Stream)
- Prolog stream being processed. May be used in the
on_begin, etc.
callbacks from sgml_parse/2.
- dialect(-Dialect)
- Return the current dialect used by the parser (
sgml,
html, html5, xhtml, xhtml5, xml
or xmlns).
- event_class(-Class)
- The event class can be requested in call-back events. It
denotes the cause of the event, providing useful information for syntax
highlighting. Defined values are:
- explicit
- The code generating this event is explicitely present in the document.
- omitted
- The current event is caused by the insertion of an omitted tag. This may
be a normal event in SGML mode or an error in XML mode.
- shorttag
- The current event (
begin or end) is caused by
an element written down using the shorttag notation (<tag/value/>.
- shortref
- The current event is caused by the expansion of a
shortref. This allows for highlighting shortref strings in the
source-text.
- doctype(-Element)
- Return the defined document-type (= toplevel element). See also
set_sgml_parser/2.
- dtd(-DTD)
- Return the currently used DTD. See dtd_property/2
for obtaining information on the DTD such as element and attribute
properties.
- context(-StackOfElements)
- Returns the stack of currently open elements as a list. The head of this
list is the current element. This can be used to determine the context
of, for example, CDATA events in call-back mode. The elements are passed
as atoms. Currently no access to the attributes is provided.
- allowed(-Elements)
- Determines which elements may be inserted at the current location. This
information is returned as a list of element-names. If character data is
allowed in the current location,
#pcdata is part of
Elements. If no element is open, the doctype is
returned.
This option is intended to support syntax-sensitive editors. Such an
editor should load the DTD, find an appropriate starting point and then
feed all data between the starting point and the caret into the parser.
Next it can use this option to determine the elements allowed at this
point. Below is a code fragment illustrating this use given a parser
with loaded DTD, an input stream and a start-location.
...,
seek(In, Start, bof, _),
set_sgml_parser(Parser, charpos(Start)),
set_sgml_parser(Parser, doctype(_)),
Len is Caret - Start,
sgml_parse(Parser,
[ source(In),
content_length(Len),
parse(input) % do not complete document
]),
get_sgml_parser(Parser, allowed(Allowed)),
...
- sgml_parse(+Parser,
+Options)
- Parse an XML file. The parser can operate in two input and two output
modes. Output is either a structured term as described with
load_structure/2
or call-backs on predefined events. The first is especially suitable for
manipulating not-too-large documents, while the latter provides a
primitive means for handling very large documents.
Input is a stream. A full description of the option-list is below.
- document(-Term)
- A variable that will be unified with a list describing the content of
the document (see load_structure/2).
- source(+Stream)
- An input stream that is read. This option must be given.
- content_length(+Characters)
- Stop parsing after Characters. This option is useful to parse
input embedded in envelopes, such as the HTTP protocol.
- cdata(+Representation)
- Specify the representation of cdata elements. Supported are
atom (default), and string. See load_structure/3
for details.
- parse(+Unit)
- Defines how much of the input is parsed. This option is used to parse
only parts of a file.
- file
- Default. Parse everything upto the end of the input.
- element
- The parser stops after reading the first element. Using
source(Stream), this implies reading is stopped as soon as
the element is complete, and another call may be issued on the same
stream to read the next element.
- content
- The value
content is like element but assumes
the element has already been opened. It may be used in a call-back from
call(on_begin, Pred) to parse individual
elements after validating their headers.
- declaration
- This may be used to stop the parser after reading the first declaration.
This is especially useful to parse only the
doctype
declaration.
- input
- This option is intended to be used in conjunction with the
allowed(Elements) option of get_sgml_parser/2.
It disables the parser's default to complete the parse-tree by closing
all open elements.
- max_errors(+MaxErrors)
- Set the maximum number of errors. If this number is exceeded further
writes to the stream will yield an I/O error exception. Printing of
errors is suppressed after reaching this value. The default is 50. Using
max_errors(-1)
makes the parser continue, no matter how many errors it encounters.
error(limit_exceeded(max_errors, Max), _)
- syntax_errors(+ErrorMode)
- Defines how syntax errors are handled.
- quiet
- Suppress all messages.
- print
- Default. Pass messages to print_message/2.
- style
- Print dubious input such as attempts for redefinitions in the DTD using print_message/2
with severity
informational.
- xml_no_ns(+Mode)
- Error handling if an XML namespace is not defined. Default generates an
error. If
quiet, the error is suppressed. Can be used
together with call(urlns, Closure) to provide external
expansion of namespaces. See also section
3.3.1.
- call(+Event, :PredicateName)
- Issue call-backs on the specified events. PredicateName is
the name of the predicate to call on this event, possibly prefixed with
a module identifier. If the handler throws an exception, parsing is
stopped and sgml_parse/2
re-throws the exception. The defined events are:
- begin
- An open-tag has been parsed. The named handler is called with three
arguments:
Handler(+Tag, +Attributes, +Parser).
- end
- A close-tag has been parsed. The named handler is called with two
arguments:
Handler(+Tag, +Parser).
- cdata
- CDATA has been parsed. The named handler is called with two arguments:
Handler(+CDATA, +Parser), where CDATA is an atom
representing the data.
- pi
- A processing instruction has been parsed. The named handler is called
with two arguments:
Handler(+Text, +Parser),
where
Text is the text of the processing instruction.
- decl
- A declaration (
<!...>) has been read. The named
handler is called with two arguments: Handler(+Text,
+Parser), where Text is the text of the declaration
with comments removed.
This option is expecially useful for highlighting declarations and
comments in editor support, where the location of the declaration is
extracted using
get_sgml_parser/2.
- error
- An error has been encountered. the named handler is called with three
arguments:
Handler(+Severity, +Message, +Parser),
where
Severity is one of warning or error
and
Message is an atom representing the diagnostic message. The
location of the error can be determined using get_sgml_parser/2
If this option is present, errors and warnings are not reported using
print_message/3
- xmlns
- When parsing an in
xmlns mode, a new namespace declaraction
is pushed on the environment. The named handler is called with three
arguments: Handler(+NameSpace, +URL, +Parser).
See section 3.3.1 for details.
- urlns
- When parsing an in
xmlns mode, this predicate can be used
to map a url into either a canonical URL for this namespace or another
internal identifier. See section 3.3.1
for details.
In some cases, part of a document needs to be parsed. One option is
to use load_structure/2
or one of its variations and extract the desired elements from the
returned structure. This is a clean solution, especially on small and
medium-sized documents. It however is unsuitable for parsing really big
documents. Such documents can only be handled with the call-back output
interface realised by the
call(Event, Action) option of sgml_parse/2.
Event-driven processing is not very natural in Prolog.
The SGML2PL library allows for a mixed approach. Consider the case
where we want to process all descriptions from RDF elements in a
document. The code below calls process_rdf_description(Element)
on each element that is directly inside an RDF element.
:- dynamic
in_rdf/0.
load_rdf(File) :-
retractall(in_rdf),
open(File, read, In),
new_sgml_parser(Parser, []),
set_sgml_parser(Parser, file(File)),
set_sgml_parser(Parser, dialect(xml)),
sgml_parse(Parser,
[ source(In),
call(begin, on_begin),
call(end, on_end)
]),
close(In).
on_end('RDF', _) :-
retractall(in_rdf).
on_begin('RDF', _, _) :-
assert(in_rdf).
on_begin(Tag, Attr, Parser) :-
in_rdf, !,
sgml_parse(Parser,
[ document(Content),
parse(content)
]),
process_rdf_description(element(Tag, Attr, Content)).