Note: this is the stubbed version of module Xml. Try to figure out how to fill in all parts of this file marked undefined. CIS 5520 students should be able to access this code through github. Eventually, the completed version will be available.

In class exercise: XML parsing

In today's exercise you will use the definitions from the Parsers lecture to build a simple parser for XML data.

This exercise is based on definitions from the Parsers lecture, summarized by the module ParserCombinators. You may modify the import statement below to bring more functions into scope, but you should not modify the ParserCombinators library.

Note that the import below makes the listed functions available, in addition to the instances for Parser for the Functor, Applicative and Alternative classes. However, it does not import the P data constructor so you should think of Parser a as an abstract type.

You may import more operators from the ParserCombinators and Control.Applicative libraries if it is helpful for you. However, you should not modify the ParserCombinators module itself.

> module Xml where

> import Control.Applicative (Alternative(..))
> import System.IO
> import Prelude hiding (filter)

> import ParserCombinators (Parser, doParse, satisfy, char, string, filter)

Your goal: produce this structured data from a string

> -- | A simplified datatype for storing XML
> data SimpleXML =
>           PCDATA  String
>         | Element ElementName [SimpleXML]
>       deriving Show

> type ElementName = String

First: the characters /, <, and > are not allowed to appear in tags or PCDATA. Let's define a function that recognizes them.

> reserved :: Char -> Bool
> reserved c = c `elem` ['/', '<', '>']

Use this definition to parse a maximal nonempty sequence of nonreserved characters: (HINT: check out operations related to the Alternative type class.)

> text :: Parser String
> text = undefined

> -- >>> doParse text "skhdjf"
> -- Just ("skhdjf","")

> -- >>> doParse text "akj<skdfsdhf"
> -- Just ("akj","<skdfsdhf")

> -- >>> doParse text ""
> -- Nothing

Now use this definition to parse nonreserved characters into XML.

> pcdata :: Parser SimpleXML
> pcdata = undefined

> -- >>> doParse pcdata "akj<skdfsdhf"
> -- Just (PCDATA "akj","<skdfsdhf")

Next, parse an empty element, like "<br/>"

> emptyContainer :: Parser SimpleXML
> emptyContainer = undefined

> -- >>> doParse emptyContainer "<br/>sdfsdf"

Parse a container element: this consists of an open tag, a potentially empty sequence of content parsed by p, and a closing tag. For example, container pcdata should recognize <br></br> or <title>A midsummer night's dream</title> (and more examples below). You do NOT need to make sure that the closing tag matches the open tag.

> container :: Parser SimpleXML -> Parser SimpleXML
> container p = undefined

> -- >>> doParse (container pcdata) "<br></br>"
> -- Just (Element "br" [],"")

> -- >>> doParse (container pcdata) "<title>A midsummer night's dream</title>"
> -- Just (Element "title" [PCDATA "A midsummer night's dream"],"")

> -- >>> doParse (container emptyContainer) "<text><br/><br/></text>"
> -- Just (Element "text" [Element "br" [],Element "br" []],"")

> -- This should also work, even though the tag is wrong
> -- >>> doParse (container pcdata) "<title>A midsummer night's dream</br>"
> -- Just (Element "title" [PCDATA "A midsummer night's dream"],"")

Now put the above together to construct a parser for simple XML data:

> xml :: Parser SimpleXML
> xml = undefined

> -- >>> doParse xml "<body>a</body>"
> -- Just (Element "body" [PCDATA "a"],"")

> -- >>> doParse xml "<body><h1>A Midsummer Night's Dream</h1><h2>Dramatis Personae</h2>THESEUS, Duke of Athens.<br/>EGEUS, father to Hermia.<br/></body>"
> -- Just (Element "body" [Element "h1" [PCDATA "A Midsummer Night's Dream"],Element "h2" [PCDATA "Dramatis Personae"],PCDATA "THESEUS, Duke of Athens.",Element "br" [],PCDATA "EGEUS, father to Hermia.",Element "br" []],"")

> -- >>> doParse xml "cis552"
> -- Just (PCDATA "cis552","")

> -- >>> doParse xml "<br/>"
> -- Just (Element "br" [],"")

Now let's try it on something a little bigger. How about dream.html from hw02?

> -- | Run a parser on a particular input file
> parseFromFile :: Parser a -> String -> IO (Maybe (a,String))
> parseFromFile parser filename = do
>   handle <- openFile filename ReadMode
>   str    <- hGetContents handle
>   return $ doParse parser str

Run this test in a terminal, the output is large so do not try to run as an inline doctest.

Xml> parseFromFile xml "dream.html"

Challenge: rewrite container so that it only succeeds when the closing tag matches the opening tag. If you had a Monad instance for Parser, this challenge would be easier to do. However, there is a solution that uses filter instead of (>>=).

> container2 :: Parser SimpleXML -> Parser SimpleXML
> container2 p = undefined

> -- >>> doParse (container2 pcdata) "<title>A midsummer night's dream</title>"
> -- Just (Element "title" [PCDATA "A midsummer night's dream"],"")

> -- >>> doParse (container2 pcdata) "<title>A midsummer night's dream</br>"
> -- Nothing

CIS 5520: Advanced Programming

Fall 2022

In class exercise: XML parsing