ANN: Amara XML Toolkit 0.9.1
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http://uche.ogbuji.net/tech/4Suite/amara ftp://ftp.4suite.org/pub/Amara/ [1] Amara XML Toolkit is a collection of Python tools for XML processing-- not just tools that happen to be written in Python, but tools built from the ground up to use Python idioms and take advantage of the many advantages of Python. Amara builds on 4Suite [http://4Suite.org], but whereas 4Suite focuses more on literal implementation of XML standards in Python, Amara focuses on Pythonic idiom. It provides tools you can trust to conform with XML standards without losing the familiar Python feel. The components of Amara are: * Bindery: data binding tool (fancy way of saying: a very Pythonic XML API) * Scimitar: implementation of the ISO Schematron schema language for XML; converts Schematron files to Python scripts * domtools: set of tools to augment Python DOMs * saxtools: set of tools to make SAX easier to use in Python There's a lot in Amara, but here are highlights: Amara Bindery: XML as easy as py -------------------------------- Based on the retired project Anobind, but updated to use SAX rather than DOM to create bindings. Bindery reads an XML document and returns a data structure of Python objects corresponding to the vocabulary used in the XML document, for maximum clarity. Bindery turns the document <monty> <python spam="eggs">What do you mean "bleh"</python> <python ministry="abuse">But I was looking for argument</python> </monty> Into a set of objects such that you can write binding.monty.python.spam In order to get the value "eggs" or binding.monty.python[1] In order to get the value "But I was looking for argument". There are other such tools for Python, and what makes Anobind unique is that it's driven by a very declarative rules-based system for binding XML to the Python data. You can register rules that are triggered by XPattern expressions specialized binding behavior. It includes XPath support and supports mutation. Bindery is very efficient, using SAX to generate bindings. Scimitar: exceptional schema language for an exceptional programming language ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Merged in from a separate project, Scimitar is an implementation of ISO Schematron that compiles a Schematron schema into a Python validator script. You typically use scimitar in two phases. Say you have a schematron schema schema1.stron and you want to validate multiple XML files against it, instance1.xml, instance2.xml, instance3.xml. First you run schema1.stron through the scimitar compiler script, scimitar.py: scimitar.py schema1.stron A file, schema1.py is generated and can be used to validate XML instances: python schema1.py instance1.xml Which emits a validation report. Amara DOM Tools: giving DOM a more Pythonic face ------------------------------------------------ DOM came from the Java world, hardly the most Pythonic API possible. Some DOM-like implementations such as 4Suite's Domlettes mix in some Pythonic idiom. Amara DOM Tools goes even further. Amara DOM Tools feature pushdom, similar to xml.dom.pulldom, but easier to use. It also includes Python generator-based tools for DOM processing, and a function to return an XPath location for any DOM node. Amara SAX Tools: SAX without the brain explosion ------------------------------------------------ Tenorsax (amara.saxtools.tenorsax) is a framework for "linerarizing" SAX logic so that it flows more naturally, and needs a lot less state machine wizardry. License ------- Amara is open source, provided under the 4Suite variant of the Apache license. See the file COPYING for details. Installation ------------ Amara requires Python 2.3 or more recent and 4Suite 1.0a3 or more recent. Make sure these are installed, unpack Amara to a convenient location and run python setup.py install [1] We have some problem reports with certain Web browsers and the ftp.4suite.org firewall. Please try an alternate FTP client if you have problems, and kindly bear with us while we sort this out. -- Uche Ogbuji Fourthought, Inc. http://uche.ogbuji.net http://4Suite.org http://fourthought.com Use CSS to display XML - http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/edu/x-dw-x-xmlcss-i.html Full XML Indexes with Gnosis - http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2004/12/08/py-xml.html Be humble, not imperial (in design) - http://www.adtmag.com/article.asp?id=10286 UBL 1.0 - http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-think28.html Use Universal Feed Parser to tame RSS - http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-tipufp.html Default and error handling in XSLT lookup tables - http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-tiplook.html A survey of XML standards - http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-stand4/ The State of Python-XML in 2004 - http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2004/10/13/py-xml.html
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Uche Ogbuji