class QDomDocument

The QDomDocument class represents an XML document. More…

Inheritance diagram of PySide6.QtXml.QDomDocument

Synopsis

Methods

Note

This documentation may contain snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python. We always welcome contributions to the snippet translation. If you see an issue with the translation, you can also let us know by creating a ticket on https:/bugreports.qt.io/projects/PYSIDE

Detailed Description

Warning

This section contains snippets that were automatically translated from C++ to Python and may contain errors.

The QDomDocument class represents the entire XML document. Conceptually, it is the root of the document tree, and provides the primary access to the document’s data.

Since elements, text nodes, comments, processing instructions, etc., cannot exist outside the context of a document, the document class also contains the factory functions needed to create these objects. The node objects created have an ownerDocument() function which associates them with the document within whose context they were created. The DOM classes that will be used most often are QDomNode , QDomDocument , QDomElement and QDomText .

The parsed XML is represented internally by a tree of objects that can be accessed using the various QDom classes. All QDom classes only reference objects in the internal tree. The internal objects in the DOM tree will get deleted once the last QDom object referencing them or the QDomDocument itself is deleted.

Creation of elements, text nodes, etc. is done using the various factory functions provided in this class. Using the default constructors of the QDom classes will only result in empty objects that cannot be manipulated or inserted into the Document.

The QDomDocument class has several functions for creating document data, for example, createElement() , createTextNode() , createComment() , createCDATASection() , createProcessingInstruction() , createAttribute() and createEntityReference() . Some of these functions have versions that support namespaces, i.e. createElementNS() and createAttributeNS() . The createDocumentFragment() function is used to hold parts of the document; this is useful for manipulating for complex documents.

The entire content of the document is set with setContent() . This function parses the string it is passed as an XML document and creates the DOM tree that represents the document. The root element is available using documentElement() . The textual representation of the document can be obtained using toString() .

Note

The DOM tree might end up reserving a lot of memory if the XML document is big. For such documents, the QXmlStreamReader class might be a better solution.

It is possible to insert a node from another document into the document using importNode() .

You can obtain a list of all the elements that have a particular tag with elementsByTagName() or with elementsByTagNameNS() .

The QDom classes are typically used as follows:

doc = QDomDocument("mydocument")
file = QFile("mydocument.xml")
if not file.open(QIODevice.ReadOnly):
    return
if not doc.setContent(file):
    file.close()
    return

file.close()
# print out the element names of all elements that are direct children
# of the outermost element.
docElem = doc.documentElement()
n = docElem.firstChild()
while not n.isNull():
    e = n.toElement() # try to convert the node to an element.
    if not e.isNull():
        print(qPrintable(e.tagName()), '\n' # the node really is an element.)

    n = n.nextSibling()

# Here we append a new element to the end of the document
elem = doc.createElement("img")
elem.setAttribute("src", "myimage.png")
docElem.appendChild(elem)

Once doc and elem go out of scope, the whole internal tree representing the XML document is deleted.

To create a document using DOM use code like this:

doc = QDomDocument()
root = doc.createElement("MyML")
doc.appendChild(root)
tag = doc.createElement("Greeting")
root.appendChild(tag)
t = doc.createTextNode("Hello World")
tag.appendChild(t)
xml = doc.toString()

For further information about the Document Object Model see the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 and Level 2 Core Specifications.

See also

DOM Bookmarks Application

class ParseOption

(inherits enum.Flag) This enum describes the possible options that can be used when parsing an XML document using the setContent() method.

Constant

Description

QDomDocument.ParseOption.Default

No parse options are set.

QDomDocument.ParseOption.UseNamespaceProcessing

Namespace processing is enabled.

QDomDocument.ParseOption.PreserveSpacingOnlyNodes

Text nodes containing only spacing characters are preserved.

See also

setContent()

Added in version 6.5.

__init__()

Constructs an empty document.

__init__(document)
Parameters:

document – QDomDocument

Constructs a copy of document.

The data of the copy is shared (shallow copy): modifying one node will also change the other. If you want to make a deep copy, use cloneNode() .

__init__(doctype)
Parameters:

doctype – QDomDocumentType

Creates a document with the document type doctype.

__init__(name)
Parameters:

name – str

Creates a document and sets the name of the document type to name.

createAttribute(name)
Parameters:

name – str

Return type:

QDomAttr

Creates a new attribute called name that can be inserted into an element, e.g. using setAttributeNode() .

If name is not a valid XML name, the behavior of this function is governed by InvalidDataPolicy .

createAttributeNS(nsURI, qName)
Parameters:

  • nsURI – str

  • qName – str

Return type:

QDomAttr

Creates a new attribute with namespace support that can be inserted into an element. The name of the attribute is qName and the namespace URI is nsURI. This function also sets prefix() and localName() to appropriate values (depending on qName).

If qName is not a valid XML name, the behavior of this function is governed by InvalidDataPolicy .

createCDATASection(data)
Parameters:

data – str

Return type:

QDomCDATASection

Creates a new CDATA section for the string value that can be inserted into the document, e.g. using appendChild() .

If value contains characters which cannot be stored in a CDATA section, the behavior of this function is governed by InvalidDataPolicy .

createComment(data)
Parameters:

data – str

Return type:

QDomComment

Creates a new comment for the string value that can be inserted into the document, e.g. using appendChild() .

If value contains characters which cannot be stored in an XML comment, the behavior of this function is governed by InvalidDataPolicy .

createDocumentFragment()
Return type:

QDomDocumentFragment

Creates a new document fragment, that can be used to hold parts of the document, e.g. when doing complex manipulations of the document tree.

createElement(tagName)
Parameters:

tagName – str

Return type:

QDomElement

Creates a new element called tagName that can be inserted into the DOM tree, e.g. using appendChild() .

If tagName is not a valid XML name, the behavior of this function is governed by InvalidDataPolicy .

createElementNS(nsURI, qName)
Parameters:

  • nsURI – str

  • qName – str

Return type:

QDomElement

Creates a new element with namespace support that can be inserted into the DOM tree. The name of the element is qName and the namespace URI is nsURI. This function also sets prefix() and localName() to appropriate values (depending on qName).

If qName is an empty string, returns a null element regardless of whether the invalid data policy is set.

See also

createElement()

createEntityReference(name)
Parameters:

name – str

Return type:

QDomEntityReference

Creates a new entity reference called name that can be inserted into the document, e.g. using appendChild() .

If name is not a valid XML name, the behavior of this function is governed by InvalidDataPolicy .

createProcessingInstruction(target, data)
Parameters:

  • target – str

  • data – str

Return type:

QDomProcessingInstruction

Creates a new processing instruction that can be inserted into the document, e.g. using appendChild() . This function sets the target for the processing instruction to target and the data to data.

If target is not a valid XML name, or data if contains characters which cannot appear in a processing instruction, the behavior of this function is governed by InvalidDataPolicy .

createTextNode(data)
Parameters:

data – str

Return type:

QDomText

Creates a text node for the string value that can be inserted into the document tree, e.g. using appendChild() .

If value contains characters which cannot be stored as character data of an XML document (even in the form of character references), the behavior of this function is governed by InvalidDataPolicy .

doctype()
Return type:

QDomDocumentType

Returns the document type of this document.

documentElement()
Return type:

QDomElement

Returns the root element of the document.

elementById(elementId)
Parameters:

elementId – str

Return type:

QDomElement

Returns the element whose ID is equal to elementId. If no element with the ID was found, this function returns a null element .

Since the QDomClasses do not know which attributes are element IDs, this function returns always a null element . This may change in a future version.

elementsByTagName(tagname)
Parameters:

tagname – str

Return type:

QDomNodeList

Returns a QDomNodeList , that contains all the elements in the document with the name tagname. The order of the node list is the order they are encountered in a preorder traversal of the element tree.

elementsByTagNameNS(nsURI, localName)
Parameters:

  • nsURI – str

  • localName – str

Return type:

QDomNodeList

Returns a QDomNodeList that contains all the elements in the document with the local name localName and a namespace URI of nsURI. The order of the node list is the order they are encountered in a preorder traversal of the element tree.

implementation()
Return type:

QDomImplementation

Returns a QDomImplementation object.

importNode(importedNode, deep)
Parameters:

  • importedNode – QDomNode

  • deep – bool

Return type:

QDomNode

Imports the node importedNode from another document to this document. importedNode remains in the original document; this function creates a copy that can be used within this document.

This function returns the imported node that belongs to this document. The returned node has no parent. It is not possible to import QDomDocument and QDomDocumentType nodes. In those cases this function returns a null node .

If importedNode is a null node , a null node is returned.

If deep is true, this function imports not only the node importedNode but its whole subtree; if it is false, only the importedNode is imported. The argument deep has no effect on QDomAttr and QDomEntityReference nodes, since the descendants of QDomAttr nodes are always imported and those of QDomEntityReference nodes are never imported.

The behavior of this function is slightly different depending on the node types:

Node Type

Behavior

QDomAttr

The owner element is set to 0 and the specified flag is set to true in the generated attribute. The whole subtree of importedNode is always imported for attribute nodes: deep has no effect.

QDomDocument

Document nodes cannot be imported.

QDomDocumentFragment

If deep is true, this function imports the whole document fragment; otherwise it only generates an empty document fragment.

QDomDocumentType

Document type nodes cannot be imported.

QDomElement

Attributes for which specified() is true are also imported, other attributes are not imported. If deep is true, this function also imports the subtree of importedNode; otherwise it imports only the element node (and some attributes, see above).

QDomEntity

Entity nodes can be imported, but at the moment there is no way to use them since the document type is read-only in DOM level 2.

QDomEntityReference

Descendants of entity reference nodes are never imported: deep has no effect.

QDomNotation

Notation nodes can be imported, but at the moment there is no way to use them since the document type is read-only in DOM level 2.

QDomProcessingInstruction

The target and value of the processing instruction is copied to the new node.

QDomText

The text is copied to the new node.

QDomCDATASection

The text is copied to the new node.

QDomComment

The text is copied to the new node.

See also

setAttribute() insertBefore() insertAfter() replaceChild() removeChild() appendChild()

setContent(data[, options=QDomDocument.ParseOption.Default])
Parameters:
Return type:

ParseResult

setContent(device[, options=QDomDocument.ParseOption.Default])
Parameters:
Return type:

ParseResult

setContent(reader[, options=QDomDocument.ParseOption.Default])
Parameters:
Return type:

ParseResult

setContent(dev)
Parameters:

dev – QIODevice

Return type:

(retval, errorMsg, errorLine, errorColumn)

Note

This function is deprecated.

This is an overloaded function.

Use the overload returning ParseResult instead.

This function reads the XML document from the IO device dev, returning true if the content was successfully parsed; otherwise returns false.

No namespace processing is performed.

setContent(text)
Parameters:

text – QByteArray

Return type:

(retval, errorMsg, errorLine, errorColumn)

Note

This function is deprecated.

This is an overloaded function.

Use the overload returning ParseResult instead.

This function reads the XML document from the byte array buffer, returning true if the content was successfully parsed; otherwise returns false.

No namespace processing is performed.

setContent(text)
Parameters:

text – str

Return type:

(retval, errorMsg, errorLine, errorColumn)

Note

This function is deprecated.

This is an overloaded function.

Use the overload returning ParseResult instead.

This function reads the XML document from the string text, returning true if the content was successfully parsed; otherwise returns false. Since text is already a Unicode string, no encoding detection is performed.

No namespace processing is performed either.

setContent(dev, namespaceProcessing)
Parameters:

  • dev – QIODevice

  • namespaceProcessing – bool

Return type:

(retval, errorMsg, errorLine, errorColumn)

Note

This function is deprecated.

This is an overloaded function.

Use the overload taking ParseOptions instead.

This function reads the XML document from the IO device dev, returning true if the content was successfully parsed; otherwise returns false.

Note

This method will try to open dev in read-only mode if it is not already open. In that case, the caller is responsible for calling close. This will change in Qt 7, which will no longer open dev. Applications should therefore open the device themselves before calling setContent .

setContent(reader, namespaceProcessing[, errorMsg=None[, errorLine=None[, errorColumn=None]]])
Parameters:

  • reader – QXmlStreamReader

  • namespaceProcessing – bool

  • errorMsg – str

  • errorLine – int

  • errorColumn – int

Return type:

bool

Note

This function is deprecated.

This is an overloaded function.

Use the overload taking ParseOptions instead.

This function reads the XML document from the QXmlStreamReader reader and parses it. Returns true if the content was successfully parsed; otherwise returns false.

If namespaceProcessing is true, the parser recognizes namespaces in the XML file and sets the prefix name, local name and namespace URI to appropriate values. If namespaceProcessing is false, the parser does no namespace processing when it reads the XML file.

If a parse error occurs, the error message is placed in * errorMsg, the line number in * errorLine and the column number in * errorColumn (unless the associated pointer is set to nullptr).

See also

QXmlStreamReader

setContent(text, namespaceProcessing)
Parameters:

  • text – QByteArray

  • namespaceProcessing – bool

Return type:

(retval, errorMsg, errorLine, errorColumn)

Note

This function is deprecated.

Use the overload taking ParseOptions instead.

This is an overloaded function.

This function parses the XML document from the byte array data and sets it as the content of the document. It tries to detect the encoding of the document as required by the XML specification.

If namespaceProcessing is true, the parser recognizes namespaces in the XML file and sets the prefix name, local name and namespace URI to appropriate values. If namespaceProcessing is false, the parser does no namespace processing when it reads the XML file.

If a parse error occurs, this function returns false and the error message is placed in * errorMsg, the line number in * errorLine and the column number in * errorColumn (unless the associated pointer is set to nullptr); otherwise this function returns true.

If namespaceProcessing is true, the function prefix() returns a string for all elements and attributes. It returns an empty string if the element or attribute has no prefix.

Text nodes consisting only of whitespace are stripped and won’t appear in the QDomDocument .

If namespaceProcessing is false, the functions prefix() , localName() and namespaceURI() return an empty string.

Entity references are handled as follows:

  • References to internal general entities and character entities occurring in the content are included. The result is a QDomText node with the references replaced by their corresponding entity values.

  • References to parameter entities occurring in the internal subset are included. The result is a QDomDocumentType node which contains entity and notation declarations with the references replaced by their corresponding entity values.

  • Any general parsed entity reference which is not defined in the internal subset and which occurs in the content is represented as a QDomEntityReference node.

  • Any parsed entity reference which is not defined in the internal subset and which occurs outside of the content is replaced with an empty string.

  • Any unparsed entity reference is replaced with an empty string.

See also

namespaceURI() localName() prefix() isEmpty()

setContent(text, namespaceProcessing)
Parameters:

  • text – str

  • namespaceProcessing – bool

Return type:

(retval, errorMsg, errorLine, errorColumn)

Note

This function is deprecated.

This is an overloaded function.

Use the overloads taking ParseOptions instead.

This function reads the XML document from the string text, returning true if the content was successfully parsed; otherwise returns false. Since text is already a Unicode string, no encoding detection is done.

toByteArray([indent=1])
Parameters:

indent – int

Return type:

QByteArray

Converts the parsed document back to its textual representation and returns a QByteArray containing the data encoded as UTF-8.

This function uses indent as the amount of space to indent subelements.

See also

toString()

toString([indent=1])
Parameters:

indent – int

Return type:

str

Converts the parsed document back to its textual representation.

This function uses indent as the amount of space to indent subelements.

If indent is -1, no whitespace at all is added.