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node-expat

Motivation

You use node.js for speed? You process XML streams? Then you want the fastest XML parser: libexpat!

Speed

A stupid speed test is supplied in bench.js. We measure how many 25-byte elements a SAX parser can process:

  • node-xml (pure JavaScript): 23,000 el/s
  • libxmljs (libxml2 binding): 77,000 el/s
  • node-expat (libexpat binding, this): 113,000 el/s

These numbers were recorded on a Core 2 2400 MHz and may turn out to be bullshit, given my few node.js experience.

Instructions

node-waf configure
node-waf build

For using the library, make sure build/default/expat.node is in either $NODE_PATH or require.paths.

Important events emitted by a parser:

  • startElement with name, attrs
  • endElement with name
  • text with string

There are more. Use test.js for reference.

Error handling

We don't emit an error event because libexpat doesn't use a callback either. Instead, check that parse() returns true. A descriptive string can be obtained via getError() to provide user feedback.

Namespace handling

A word about special parsing of xmlns: this is not neccessary in a bare SAX parser like this, given that the DOM replacement you are using (if any) is not relevant to the parser.

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libexpat XML SAX parser binding for node.js

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