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<div class="section" id="module-xml.dom.minidom">
<h1>20.7. <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">xml.dom.minidom</span></tt> — Lightweight DOM implementation<a class="headerlink" href="#module-xml.dom.minidom" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.0.</span></p>
<p><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">xml.dom.minidom</span></tt> is a light-weight implementation of the Document Object
Model interface. It is intended to be simpler than the full DOM and also
significantly smaller.</p>
<p>DOM applications typically start by parsing some XML into a DOM. With
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">xml.dom.minidom</span></tt>, this is done through the parse functions:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">xml.dom.minidom</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">parse</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">parseString</span>
<span class="n">dom1</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">parse</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'c:</span><span class="se">\\</span><span class="s">temp</span><span class="se">\\</span><span class="s">mydata.xml'</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="c"># parse an XML file by name</span>
<span class="n">datasource</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="nb">open</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'c:</span><span class="se">\\</span><span class="s">temp</span><span class="se">\\</span><span class="s">mydata.xml'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">dom2</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">parse</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">datasource</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="c"># parse an open file</span>
<span class="n">dom3</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">parseString</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'<myxml>Some data<empty/> some more data</myxml>'</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>The <a title="xml.dom.minidom.parse" class="reference internal" href="#xml.dom.minidom.parse"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">parse()</span></tt></a> function can take either a filename or an open file object.</p>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="xml.dom.minidom.parse">
<tt class="descclassname">xml.dom.minidom.</tt><tt class="descname">parse</tt><big>(</big><em>filename_or_file</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>parser</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>bufsize</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#xml.dom.minidom.parse" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Return a <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Document</span></tt> from the given input. <em>filename_or_file</em> may be
either a file name, or a file-like object. <em>parser</em>, if given, must be a SAX2
parser object. This function will change the document handler of the parser and
activate namespace support; other parser configuration (like setting an entity
resolver) must have been done in advance.</dd></dl>
<p>If you have XML in a string, you can use the <a title="xml.dom.minidom.parseString" class="reference internal" href="#xml.dom.minidom.parseString"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">parseString()</span></tt></a> function
instead:</p>
<dl class="function">
<dt id="xml.dom.minidom.parseString">
<tt class="descclassname">xml.dom.minidom.</tt><tt class="descname">parseString</tt><big>(</big><em>string</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>parser</em><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#xml.dom.minidom.parseString" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Return a <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Document</span></tt> that represents the <em>string</em>. This method creates a
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">StringIO</span></tt> object for the string and passes that on to <a title="xml.dom.minidom.parse" class="reference internal" href="#xml.dom.minidom.parse"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">parse()</span></tt></a>.</dd></dl>
<p>Both functions return a <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Document</span></tt> object representing the content of the
document.</p>
<p>What the <a title="xml.dom.minidom.parse" class="reference internal" href="#xml.dom.minidom.parse"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">parse()</span></tt></a> and <a title="xml.dom.minidom.parseString" class="reference internal" href="#xml.dom.minidom.parseString"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">parseString()</span></tt></a> functions do is connect an XML
parser with a “DOM builder” that can accept parse events from any SAX parser and
convert them into a DOM tree. The name of the functions are perhaps misleading,
but are easy to grasp when learning the interfaces. The parsing of the document
will be completed before these functions return; it’s simply that these
functions do not provide a parser implementation themselves.</p>
<p>You can also create a <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Document</span></tt> by calling a method on a “DOM
Implementation” object. You can get this object either by calling the
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">getDOMImplementation()</span></tt> function in the <a title="Document Object Model API for Python." class="reference external" href="xml.dom.html#module-xml.dom"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">xml.dom</span></tt></a> package or the
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">xml.dom.minidom</span></tt> module. Using the implementation from the
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">xml.dom.minidom</span></tt> module will always return a <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Document</span></tt> instance
from the minidom implementation, while the version from <a title="Document Object Model API for Python." class="reference external" href="xml.dom.html#module-xml.dom"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">xml.dom</span></tt></a> may
provide an alternate implementation (this is likely if you have the <a class="reference external" href="http://pyxml.sourceforge.net/">PyXML
package</a> installed). Once you have a
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Document</span></tt>, you can add child nodes to it to populate the DOM:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">xml.dom.minidom</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <span class="n">getDOMImplementation</span>
<span class="n">impl</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">getDOMImplementation</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">newdoc</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">impl</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">createDocument</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="bp">None</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s">"some_tag"</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="bp">None</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">top_element</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">newdoc</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">documentElement</span>
<span class="n">text</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">newdoc</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">createTextNode</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">'Some textual content.'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">top_element</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">appendChild</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">text</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>Once you have a DOM document object, you can access the parts of your XML
document through its properties and methods. These properties are defined in
the DOM specification. The main property of the document object is the
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">documentElement</span></tt> property. It gives you the main element in the XML
document: the one that holds all others. Here is an example program:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">dom3</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">parseString</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"<myxml>Some data</myxml>"</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">assert</span> <span class="n">dom3</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">documentElement</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">tagName</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="s">"myxml"</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p>When you are finished with a DOM, you should clean it up. This is necessary
because some versions of Python do not support garbage collection of objects
that refer to each other in a cycle. Until this restriction is removed from all
versions of Python, it is safest to write your code as if cycles would not be
cleaned up.</p>
<p>The way to clean up a DOM is to call its <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">unlink()</span></tt> method:</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="n">dom1</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">unlink</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">dom2</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">unlink</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">dom3</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">unlink</span><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<p><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">unlink()</span></tt> is a <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">xml.dom.minidom</span></tt>-specific extension to the DOM API.
After calling <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">unlink()</span></tt> on a node, the node and its descendants are
essentially useless.</p>
<div class="admonition-see-also admonition seealso">
<p class="first admonition-title">See also</p>
<dl class="last docutils">
<dt><a class="reference external" href="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-DOM-Level-1/">Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 Specification</a></dt>
<dd>The W3C recommendation for the DOM supported by <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">xml.dom.minidom</span></tt>.</dd>
</dl>
</div>
<div class="section" id="dom-objects">
<span id="minidom-objects"></span><h2>20.7.1. DOM Objects<a class="headerlink" href="#dom-objects" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The definition of the DOM API for Python is given as part of the <a title="Document Object Model API for Python." class="reference external" href="xml.dom.html#module-xml.dom"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">xml.dom</span></tt></a>
module documentation. This section lists the differences between the API and
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">xml.dom.minidom</span></tt>.</p>
<dl class="method">
<dt id="xml.dom.minidom.Node.unlink">
<tt class="descclassname">Node.</tt><tt class="descname">unlink</tt><big>(</big><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#xml.dom.minidom.Node.unlink" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Break internal references within the DOM so that it will be garbage collected on
versions of Python without cyclic GC. Even when cyclic GC is available, using
this can make large amounts of memory available sooner, so calling this on DOM
objects as soon as they are no longer needed is good practice. This only needs
to be called on the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Document</span></tt> object, but may be called on child nodes
to discard children of that node.</dd></dl>
<dl class="method">
<dt id="xml.dom.minidom.Node.writexml">
<tt class="descclassname">Node.</tt><tt class="descname">writexml</tt><big>(</big><em>writer</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>indent=""</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>addindent=""</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>newl=""</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>encoding=""</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#xml.dom.minidom.Node.writexml" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Write XML to the writer object. The writer should have a <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">write()</span></tt> method
which matches that of the file object interface. The <em>indent</em> parameter is the
indentation of the current node. The <em>addindent</em> parameter is the incremental
indentation to use for subnodes of the current one. The <em>newl</em> parameter
specifies the string to use to terminate newlines.</p>
<p class="versionchanged">
<span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 2.1: </span>The optional keyword parameters <em>indent</em>, <em>addindent</em>, and <em>newl</em> were added to
support pretty output.</p>
<p class="versionchanged">
<span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 2.3: </span>For the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Document</span></tt> node, an additional keyword argument
<em>encoding</em> can be used to specify the encoding field of the XML header.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="method">
<dt id="xml.dom.minidom.Node.toxml">
<tt class="descclassname">Node.</tt><tt class="descname">toxml</tt><big>(</big><span class="optional">[</span><em>encoding</em><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#xml.dom.minidom.Node.toxml" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return the XML that the DOM represents as a string.</p>
<p>With no argument, the XML header does not specify an encoding, and the result is
Unicode string if the default encoding cannot represent all characters in the
document. Encoding this string in an encoding other than UTF-8 is likely
incorrect, since UTF-8 is the default encoding of XML.</p>
<p>With an explicit <em>encoding</em> <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id3" id="id1">[1]</a> argument, the result is a byte string in the
specified encoding. It is recommended that this argument is always specified. To
avoid <a title="exceptions.UnicodeError" class="reference external" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.UnicodeError"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">UnicodeError</span></tt></a> exceptions in case of unrepresentable text data, the
encoding argument should be specified as “utf-8”.</p>
<p class="versionchanged">
<span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 2.3: </span>the <em>encoding</em> argument was introduced; see <a title="xml.dom.minidom.Node.writexml" class="reference internal" href="#xml.dom.minidom.Node.writexml"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">writexml()</span></tt></a>.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="method">
<dt id="xml.dom.minidom.Node.toprettyxml">
<tt class="descclassname">Node.</tt><tt class="descname">toprettyxml</tt><big>(</big><span class="optional">[</span><em>indent=""</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>newl=""</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>encoding=""</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#xml.dom.minidom.Node.toprettyxml" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Return a pretty-printed version of the document. <em>indent</em> specifies the
indentation string and defaults to a tabulator; <em>newl</em> specifies the string
emitted at the end of each line and defaults to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">\n</span></tt>.</p>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.1.</span></p>
<p class="versionchanged">
<span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 2.3: </span>the encoding argument was introduced; see <a title="xml.dom.minidom.Node.writexml" class="reference internal" href="#xml.dom.minidom.Node.writexml"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">writexml()</span></tt></a>.</p>
</dd></dl>
<p>The following standard DOM methods have special considerations with
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">xml.dom.minidom</span></tt>:</p>
<dl class="method">
<dt id="xml.dom.minidom.Node.cloneNode">
<tt class="descclassname">Node.</tt><tt class="descname">cloneNode</tt><big>(</big><em>deep</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#xml.dom.minidom.Node.cloneNode" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd>Although this method was present in the version of <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">xml.dom.minidom</span></tt>
packaged with Python 2.0, it was seriously broken. This has been corrected for
subsequent releases.</dd></dl>
</div>
<div class="section" id="dom-example">
<span id="id2"></span><h2>20.7.2. DOM Example<a class="headerlink" href="#dom-example" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>This example program is a fairly realistic example of a simple program. In this
particular case, we do not take much advantage of the flexibility of the DOM.</p>
<div class="highlight-python"><div class="highlight"><pre><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">xml.dom.minidom</span>
<span class="n">document</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">"""</span><span class="se">\</span>
<span class="s"><slideshow></span>
<span class="s"><title>Demo slideshow</title></span>
<span class="s"><slide><title>Slide title</title></span>
<span class="s"><point>This is a demo</point></span>
<span class="s"><point>Of a program for processing slides</point></span>
<span class="s"></slide></span>
<span class="s"><slide><title>Another demo slide</title></span>
<span class="s"><point>It is important</point></span>
<span class="s"><point>To have more than</point></span>
<span class="s"><point>one slide</point></span>
<span class="s"></slide></span>
<span class="s"></slideshow></span>
<span class="s">"""</span>
<span class="n">dom</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">xml</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">dom</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">minidom</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">parseString</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">document</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">getText</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">nodelist</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="n">rc</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s">""</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">node</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">nodelist</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">node</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">nodeType</span> <span class="o">==</span> <span class="n">node</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">TEXT_NODE</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">rc</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">rc</span> <span class="o">+</span> <span class="n">node</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">data</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="n">rc</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">handleSlideshow</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">slideshow</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">"<html>"</span>
<span class="n">handleSlideshowTitle</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">slideshow</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getElementsByTagName</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"title"</span><span class="p">)[</span><span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">])</span>
<span class="n">slides</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">slideshow</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getElementsByTagName</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"slide"</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">handleToc</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">slides</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">handleSlides</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">slides</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">"</html>"</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">handleSlides</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">slides</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">slide</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">slides</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">handleSlide</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">slide</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">handleSlide</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">slide</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="n">handleSlideTitle</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">slide</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getElementsByTagName</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"title"</span><span class="p">)[</span><span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">])</span>
<span class="n">handlePoints</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">slide</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getElementsByTagName</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"point"</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">handleSlideshowTitle</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">title</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">"<title></span><span class="si">%s</span><span class="s"></title>"</span> <span class="o">%</span> <span class="n">getText</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">title</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">childNodes</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">handleSlideTitle</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">title</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">"<h2></span><span class="si">%s</span><span class="s"></h2>"</span> <span class="o">%</span> <span class="n">getText</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">title</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">childNodes</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">handlePoints</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">points</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">"<ul>"</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">point</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">points</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">handlePoint</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">point</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">"</ul>"</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">handlePoint</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">point</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">"<li></span><span class="si">%s</span><span class="s"></li>"</span> <span class="o">%</span> <span class="n">getText</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">point</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">childNodes</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">handleToc</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">slides</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">slide</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">slides</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="n">title</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">slide</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">getElementsByTagName</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s">"title"</span><span class="p">)[</span><span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="k">print</span> <span class="s">"<p></span><span class="si">%s</span><span class="s"></p>"</span> <span class="o">%</span> <span class="n">getText</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">title</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">childNodes</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">handleSlideshow</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">dom</span><span class="p">)</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="minidom-and-the-dom-standard">
<span id="minidom-and-dom"></span><h2>20.7.3. minidom and the DOM standard<a class="headerlink" href="#minidom-and-the-dom-standard" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">xml.dom.minidom</span></tt> module is essentially a DOM 1.0-compatible DOM with
some DOM 2 features (primarily namespace features).</p>
<p>Usage of the DOM interface in Python is straight-forward. The following mapping
rules apply:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Interfaces are accessed through instance objects. Applications should not
instantiate the classes themselves; they should use the creator functions
available on the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Document</span></tt> object. Derived interfaces support all
operations (and attributes) from the base interfaces, plus any new operations.</li>
<li>Operations are used as methods. Since the DOM uses only <a class="reference external" href="../reference/expressions.html#in"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">in</span></tt></a>
parameters, the arguments are passed in normal order (from left to right).
There are no optional arguments. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">void</span></tt> operations return <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt>.</li>
<li>IDL attributes map to instance attributes. For compatibility with the OMG IDL
language mapping for Python, an attribute <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">foo</span></tt> can also be accessed through
accessor methods <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">_get_foo()</span></tt> and <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">_set_foo()</span></tt>. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">readonly</span></tt>
attributes must not be changed; this is not enforced at runtime.</li>
<li>The types <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">short</span> <span class="pre">int</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">unsigned</span> <span class="pre">int</span></tt>, <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">unsigned</span> <span class="pre">long</span> <span class="pre">long</span></tt>, and
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">boolean</span></tt> all map to Python integer objects.</li>
<li>The type <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">DOMString</span></tt> maps to Python strings. <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">xml.dom.minidom</span></tt> supports
either byte or Unicode strings, but will normally produce Unicode strings.
Values of type <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">DOMString</span></tt> may also be <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt> where allowed to have the IDL
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">null</span></tt> value by the DOM specification from the W3C.</li>
<li><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">const</span></tt> declarations map to variables in their respective scope (e.g.
<tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">xml.dom.minidom.Node.PROCESSING_INSTRUCTION_NODE</span></tt>); they must not be changed.</li>
<li><tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">DOMException</span></tt> is currently not supported in <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">xml.dom.minidom</span></tt>.
Instead, <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">xml.dom.minidom</span></tt> uses standard Python exceptions such as
<a title="exceptions.TypeError" class="reference external" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.TypeError"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">TypeError</span></tt></a> and <a title="exceptions.AttributeError" class="reference external" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.AttributeError"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">AttributeError</span></tt></a>.</li>
<li><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">NodeList</span></tt> objects are implemented using Python’s built-in list type.
Starting with Python 2.2, these objects provide the interface defined in the DOM
specification, but with earlier versions of Python they do not support the
official API. They are, however, much more “Pythonic” than the interface
defined in the W3C recommendations.</li>
</ul>
<p>The following interfaces have no implementation in <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">xml.dom.minidom</span></tt>:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">DOMTimeStamp</span></tt></li>
<li><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">DocumentType</span></tt> (added in Python 2.1)</li>
<li><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">DOMImplementation</span></tt> (added in Python 2.1)</li>
<li><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">CharacterData</span></tt></li>
<li><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">CDATASection</span></tt></li>
<li><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Notation</span></tt></li>
<li><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Entity</span></tt></li>
<li><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">EntityReference</span></tt></li>
<li><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">DocumentFragment</span></tt></li>
</ul>
<p>Most of these reflect information in the XML document that is not of general
utility to most DOM users.</p>
<p class="rubric">Footnotes</p>
<table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" id="id3" rules="none">
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td class="label">[1]</td><td>The encoding string included in XML output should conform to the
appropriate standards. For example, “UTF-8” is valid, but “UTF8” is
not. See <a class="reference external" href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/REC-xml11-20060816/#NT-EncodingDecl">http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/REC-xml11-20060816/#NT-EncodingDecl</a>
and <a class="reference external" href="http://www.iana.org/assignments/character-sets">http://www.iana.org/assignments/character-sets</a> .</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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<h3><a href="../contents.html">Table Of Contents</a></h3>
<ul>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#">20.7. <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">xml.dom.minidom</span></tt> — Lightweight DOM implementation</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#dom-objects">20.7.1. DOM Objects</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#dom-example">20.7.2. DOM Example</a></li>
<li><a class="reference external" href="#minidom-and-the-dom-standard">20.7.3. minidom and the DOM standard</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h4>Previous topic</h4>
<p class="topless"><a href="xml.dom.html"
title="previous chapter">20.6. <tt class="docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal"><span class="pre">xml.dom</span></tt> — The Document Object Model API</a></p>
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