x2j.go - Unmarshal dynamic / arbitrary XML docs and extract values (using wildcards, if necessary).

ANNOUNCEMENTS

20 December 2013:

Non-UTF8 character sets supported via the X2jCharsetReader variable.

12 December 2013:

For symmetry, the package j2x has functions that marshal JSON strings and
map[string]interface{} values to XML encoded strings: http://godoc.org/github.com/clbanning/j2x.

Also, ToTree(), ToMap(), ToJson(), ToJsonIndent(), ReaderValuesFromTagPath() and ReaderValuesForTag() use io.Reader instead of string or []byte.

If you want to process a stream of XML messages check out XmlMsgsFromReader().

MOTIVATION

I make extensive use of JSON for messaging and typically unmarshal the messages into
map[string]interface{} variables.  This is easily done using json.Unmarshal from the
standard Go libraries.  Unfortunately, many legacy solutions use structured
XML messages; in those environments the applications would have to be refitted to
interoperate with my components.

The better solution is to just provide an alternative HTTP handler that receives
XML doc messages and parses it into a map[string]interface{} variable and then reuse
all the JSON-based code.  The Go xml.Unmarshal() function does not provide the same
option of unmarshaling XML messages into map[string]interface{} variables. So I wrote
a couple of small functions to fill this gap.

Of course, once the XML doc was unmarshal'd into a map[string]interface{} variable it
was just a matter of calling json.Marshal() to provide it as a JSON string.  Hence 'x2j'
rather than just 'x2m'.

USAGE

The package is fairly well self-documented. (http://godoc.org/github.com/clbanning/x2j)  
The one really useful function is:

    - Unmarshal(doc []byte, v interface{}) error  
      where v is a pointer to a variable of type 'map[string]interface{}', 'string', or
      any other type supported by xml.Unmarshal().

To retrieve a value for specific tag use: 

    - DocValue(doc, path string, attrs ...string) (interface{},error) 
    - MapValue(m map[string]interface{}, path string, attr map[string]interface{}, recast ...bool) (interface{}, error)

The 'path' argument is a period-separated tag hierarchy - also known as dot-notation.
It is the program's responsibility to cast the returned value to the proper type; possible 
types are the normal JSON unmarshaling types: string, float64, bool, []interface, map[string]interface{}.  

To retrieve all values associated with a tag occurring anywhere in the XML document use:

    - ValuesForTag(doc, tag string) ([]interface{}, error)
    - ValuesForKey(m map[string]interface{}, key string) []interface{}

    Demos: http://play.golang.org/p/m8zP-cpk0O
           http://play.golang.org/p/cIteTS1iSg
           http://play.golang.org/p/vd8pMiI21b

Returned values should be one of map[string]interface, []interface{}, or string.

All the values assocated with a tag-path that may include one or more wildcard characters - 
'*' - can also be retrieved using:

    - ValuesFromTagPath(doc, path string, getAttrs ...bool) ([]interface{}, error)
    - ValuesFromKeyPath(map[string]interface{}, path string, getAttrs ...bool) []interface{}

    Demos: http://play.golang.org/p/kUQnZ8VuhS
           http://play.golang.org/p/l1aMHYtz7G

NOTE: care should be taken when using "*" at the end of a path - i.e., "books.book.*".  See
the x2jpath_test.go case on how the wildcard returns all key values and collapses list values;
the same message structure can load a []interface{} or a map[string]interface{} (or an interface{}) 
value for a tag.

See the test cases in "x2jpath_test.go" and programs in "example" subdirectory for more.

XML PARSING CONVENTIONS

   - Attributes are parsed to map[string]interface{} values by prefixing a hyphen, '-',
     to the attribute label.
   - If the element is a simple element and has attributes, the element value
     is given the key '#text' for its map[string]interface{} representation.  (See
     the 'atomFeedString.xml' test data, below.)

BULK PROCESSING OF MESSAGE FILES

Sometime messages may be logged into files for transmission via FTP (e.g.) and subsequent
processing. You can use the bulk XML message processor to convert files of XML messages into 
map[string]interface{} values with custom processing and error handler functions.  See
the notes and test code for:

   - XmlMsgsFromFile(fname string, phandler func(map[string]interface{}) bool, ehandler func(error) bool,recast ...bool) error

IMPLEMENTATION NOTES

Nothing fancy here, just brute force.

   - Use xml.Decoder to parse the XML doc and build a tree.
   - Walk the tree and load values into a map[string]interface{} variable, 'm', as
     appropriate.
   - Use json.Marshaler to convert 'm' to JSON.

As for testing:

   - Copy an XML doc into 'x2j_test.xml'.
   - Run "go test" and you'll get a full dump.
     ("pathTestString.xml" and "atomFeedString.xml" are test data from "read_test.go"
     in the encoding/xml directory of the standard package library.)

USES

   - putting a XML API on our message hub middleware (http://jsonhub.net)
   - loading XML data into NoSQL database, such as, mongoDB

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS WITH GO 1.1 and 1.2

Upgrading to Go 1.1 environment results in performance improvements for XML and JSON
unmarshalling, in general.  The x2j package gets an average performance boost of 40%.

                           ----- Go 1.0.2 -----   ----------- Go 1.1 -----------
                            iterations  ns/op      iterations  ns/op  % improved
Benchmark_UseXml-4            100000    18776        200000    10377     45%
Benchmark_UseX2j-4             50000    55323         50000    33958     39%
Benchmark_UseJson-4          1000000     2257       1000000     1484     34%
Benchmark_UseJsonToMap-4     1000000     2531       1000000     1566     38%
BenchmarkBig_UseXml-4         100000    28918        100000    15876     45%
BenchmarkBig_UseX2j-4          20000    86338         50000    52661     39%
BenchmarkBig_UseJson-4        500000     4448       1000000     2664     40%
BenchmarkBig_UseJsonToMap-4   200000     9076        500000     5753     37%
BenchmarkBig3_UseXml-4         50000    42224        100000    24686     42%
BenchmarkBig3_UseX2j-4         10000   147407         20000    84332     43%
BenchmarkBig3_UseJson-4       500000     5921        500000     3930     34%
BenchmarkBig3_UseJsonToMap-4  200000    13037        200000     8670     33%

The x2j package gets an additional 15-20% performance boost going to Go 1.2.

                           ------ Go 1.1 ------   ----------- Go 1.2 -----------
                            iterations  ns/op      iterations  ns/op  % improved
Benchmark_UseXml-4            200000    10377        200000    11031     -6%
Benchmark_UseX2j-4             50000    33958        100000    29188     14%
Benchmark_UseJson-4          1000000     1484       1000000     1347      9%
Benchmark_UseJsonToMap-4     1000000     1566       1000000     1434      8%
BenchmarkBig_UseXml-4         100000    15876        100000    16585     -4%
BenchmarkBig_UseX2j-4          50000    52661         50000    43452     17%
BenchmarkBig_UseJson-4       1000000     2664       1000000     2523      5%
BenchmarkBig_UseJsonToMap-4   500000     5753        500000     4992     13%
BenchmarkBig3_UseXml-4        100000    24686        100000    24348      1%
BenchmarkBig3_UseX2j-4         20000    84332         50000    66736     21%
BenchmarkBig3_UseJson-4       500000     3930        500000     3733      5%
BenchmarkBig3_UseJsonToMap-4  200000     8670        200000     7810     10%