XML Nodes

XML element nodes are made available with the following API.

Properties

node:name

local string = node:name

node:root

local root = node:root

node:document

local doc = node:document

node:local_name

local string = node:local_name

node:prefix

local string = node:prefix

node:namespace_uri

local string = node:namespace_uri

node:attr

node:attr[name] = text
local attr = node:attr[name]

Set or retrieve an attribute value belonging to the node. Equivalent to the setattr() and getattr() methods respectively.

node:parent

local node = node:parent

node:next_sibling

local sibling = node:next_sibling

node:previous_sibling

local sibling = node:previous_sibling

node:first_child

local child = node:first_child

node:last_child

local child = node:last_child

Methods

node:append_child()

node:append_child(child)

• child: child to append

Append child to the end of the node's child list.

node:children()

local child

for child in node:children()
do
    -- process child
end

Return an iterator function for the node's children. This is a more convenient alternative to explicitly looping through nodes from node:first_child to node:last_child via the child:next_sibling properties.

node:setattr()

node:setattr(name, value)

• name: string with name of attribute
• value: string with text value of attribute

Set the value of the node's attribute (property).

node:getattr()

value = node:getattr(name)

• name: string with name of attribute

Return a string with the value of the node's property.

node:unsetattr()

node:unsetattr(name)

• name: string with name of attribute to remove.

Remove attribute.

node:copy()

node:copy()

node:replace()

node:replace()

node:unlink()

node:unlink()

node:new()

node:new(name)

• name: string with new node local-name

Create a new node belonging to the same document as the reference node.

node:text()

node:text(content)

• content: string with new text content

Create a new text node belonging to the same document as the reference node.

node:parse()

node:parse(content)

• content: string with content to parse

Parse a string containing a well-balanced XML chunk and add the result to the reference node's list of children.

node:serialize()

node:serialize(func)
node:serialize(function (text) io.write (text) end)

• func: writer function.

Serialise the XML document. The argument is a function repeatedly called to write the resulting text.

node:nodeset()

local node_set = node:nodeset()

Create a new nodeset containing the node.

node:newattr()

node:attr(name,text)

• name: string with attribute name.
• text: string with text content for the attribute.

Create a new attribute on the node with the specified name and content.

tostring()

The Lua tostring() function returns the string value of the element content.

Operators

The following operators are defined

• =:
• <:
• <=: