Mapping C structure to an XML element

Question

Suppose I have a structure in C or C++, such as:

struct ConfigurableElement {
   int ID;
   char* strName;
   long prop1;
   long prop2;
   ...
};

I would like to load/save it to/from the following XML element:

 <ConfigurableElement ID="1" strName="namedElem" prop1="2" prop2="3" ... />

Such a mapping can be trivially done in Java/C# or any other language with run-time reflection for the matter. Can it be done in any non-tedious way in C++ with macros/template trickery?

Bonus points for handling nested structures/unions.

Anon Y. · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-13 09:04:15Z

3

The technique you want is called serialization. You may want to read these articles:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cpp/xmlserialization.aspx

http://www.codesynthesis.com/products/xsd/ <=== Very close to what you want!

http://www.artima.com/cppsource/xml_data_binding.html

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-serial.html

http://www.firstobject.com/xml-serialization-in-c++.htm

EDIT:

There is another option for you: Xmlize provided by Ultimatepp:

http://www.ultimatepp.org/reference$Xmlize.html

http://www.ultimatepp.org/reference$Xmlize$en-us.html

http://www.ultimatepp.org/reference$XmlizeCustomValue$en-us.html

http://www.ultimatepp.org/reference$Xmlize_std$en-us.html

http://www.ultimatepp.org/reference$XML$en-us.html

edited Feb 13, 2013 at 9:04

Anon Y.

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answered Apr 21, 2010 at 18:00

Viet

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3 Comments

EFraim Over a year ago

I know what serialization is. I am interested in human-readable serialization in the exact format specified. But the XSD one might actually be interesting.

Nick Van Brunt Over a year ago

a few more - codesynthesis.com/products/xsd gsoap2.sourceforge.net

Viet Over a year ago

Yes, I predicted that XSD is very close to what you want. It's dual-licensed, GPL & commercial licensed.

Herman Narkaytis · Accepted Answer · 2023-07-24 20:14:07Z

3

Tips and tricks always exists. Take a look at Metaresc library https://github.com/alexanderchuranov/Metaresc

It provides interface for types declaration that will also generate meta-data for the type. Based on meta-data you can easily serialize/deserialize objects of any complexity. Out of the box you can serialize/deserialize XML, JSON, YAML, XDR, Lisp-like notation, C-init notation.

Here is a simple example:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

#include "metaresc.h"

TYPEDEF_STRUCT (host_t,
                (char *, host),
                int port,
                );

TYPEDEF_STRUCT (config_t,
                (host_t, local),
                (host_t, remote),
                (char *, name),
                );

int main (int argc, char * argv[])
{
  config_t config = {
    .local = {
      .host = "localhost",
      .port = 8080,
    },
    .remote = {
      .host = "google.com",
      .port = 80,
    },
    .name = "service",
  };

  char * str = MR_SAVE_XML (config_t, &config);
  if (str)
    {
      printf ("%s\n", str);
      free (str);
    }
  return (EXIT_SUCCESS);
}

This program will output

$ ./config
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
  <local>
    <host>localhost</host>
    <port>8080</port>
  </local>
  <remote>
    <host>google.com</host>
    <port>80</port>
  </remote>
  <name>service</name>
</config>

Library works fine for latest gcc and clang.

edited Jul 24, 2023 at 20:14

answered Aug 11, 2015 at 8:42

Herman Narkaytis

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2 Comments

ManWithNoName Over a year ago

I'm a newbie. How to use this library with code::blocks under Windows 7 ? I have tried to add .c and .h files but when I include metaresc.h and build it in my project, the file mr_pp.h can't be found. Where can I find this file, I don't see it in the project. Thanks

Herman Narkaytis Over a year ago

mr_pp.h is auto generated header file. You could build it only using autoconf/automake/make toolchain. More details could be found here github.com/alexanderchuranov/Metaresc/blob/master/README You can't just put header files into your project. You need to build library separately and link with main project on linkage stage. See examples/ subfolder.

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