Catman...former(3pm)

💖 Catmandu::XML::Transformer 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to the manual for Catmandu::XML::Transformer, a lil utility module for XML/XSLT processing ✨ (the man page calls itself Catman...former(3pm) up top, which is giving truncated-filename realness, and it lives in the User Contributed Perl Documentation section 🫶).

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

here's the whole vibe, no cap:

$transformer = Catamandu::XML::Transformer->new( stylesheet => 'file.xsl' );

$xml_string = $transformer->transform( $xml_string ); # SCALAR
$xml_dom    = $transformer->transform( $xml_dom );    # XML::LibXML::Document
$xml_struct = $transformer->transform( $xml_struct ); # ARRAY reference
$xml_simple = $transformer->transform( $xml_simple ); # HASH reference

$transformer = Catamandu::XML::Transformer->new( output_format => 'string' );
$xml_string  = $transformer->transform( $xml );       # any XML to SCALAR

like… you build a transformer, you hand it XML, you get XML back. iconic behaviour tbh 🌈

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🌸 CONFIGURATION 🌸

the options you can pass when you make one, mwah 💅

• stylesheet — zero or more XSLT files 🎀. you can give them as a comma-separated list of files, or as an array reference holding multiple files, and they get applied as a transformation pipeline. the files get parsed once, on instantiation of the Catmandu::XML::Transformer object — so like, not every single time you call transform, okay? efficient queen 💖
• output_format — the output format you're expecting: "dom", "string", "struct", or "simple" ⭐. by default the input format is what triggers the output format. BUT — and this is the plot twist — if the last stylesheet has text output (i.e. <xsl:output method="text"/>), then the output format gets automatically set to "string" 🦋

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👑 METHODS 👑

the methods, bestie, they're right here:

• stylesheet() — returns an array reference of the XSLT filenames being used as the transformation pipeline 💜
• output_format() — returns the output format, or undef 🙈 (yes, it can just be undef. it's fine. it's giving mystery.)

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🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

• XML::Struct

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that's the whole page, you ate it, periodt 💅

signing off: this was perl v5.36.0, dated 2022-09-15, still serving Catman...former(3pm) energy forever 🎀✨ no cap.