Writing Streaming XML Using MSXML

C++, COM, Win32, XML Add comments

In my posts Implementing IXmlWriter Series, I wrote a streaming XML writing class whose interface is based on .NET’s XmlWriter. I recently discovered that MSXML provides its own method to write streaming XML through the class MXXMLWriter.

MXXMLWriter supports a large set of functionality including encoding, indentation, disabling output escaping, and writing XML fragments. The generated XML can be written to an IStream, a BSTR, or a DOMDocument object. However, it’s interface leaves much to be desired. Usage looks like this:

  1. #import <msxml3.dll>
  2.  
  3.  
  4. // I’m using the #import-generated _com_ptr_t-based smart pointers
  5. MSXML2::IMXWriterPtr spMXWriter;
  6. hr = spMXWriter.CreateInstance(__uuidof(MSXML2::MXXMLWriter30));
  7. _ASSERT(SUCCEEDED(hr)); // TODO
  8.  
  9. // Configure the IMXWriter as appropriate.  We will be using the default of
  10. // writing to a BSTR which can be retrieved using spMXWriter->get_output().
  11.  
  12. MSXML2::ISAXContentHandlerPtr spSAXContentHandler(spMXWriter);
  13. _ASSERT(spSAXContentHandler != NULL); // TODO
  14.  
  15. // Be sure to check the hrs below
  16.  
  17. hr = spSAXContentHandler->startDocument();
  18. hr = spSAXContentHandler->startElement(L"", 0, L"root", 4, L"root", 4, NULL);
  19. hr = spSAXContentHandler->characters(L"text", 4);
  20. // endElement also takes the element name.  This means we may need to
  21. // maintain our own open element stack.
  22. hr = spSAXContentHandler->endElement(L"", 0, L"root", 4, L"root", 4);
  23. hr = spSAXContentHandler->endDocument();

The rough IXmlWriter equivalent is:

  1. #include "StringXmlWriter.h"
  2.  
  3.  
  4. StringXmlWriter xw;
  5. xw.WriteStartDocument();
  6.   xw.WriteStartElement("root");
  7.     xw.WriteString("text");
  8.   xw.WriteEndElement(); // /root
  9. xw.WriteEndDocument();

However, there might be a case to change IXmlWriter to use MXXMLWriter internally.

Comments are closed.

WP Theme & Icons by N.Design Studio
Entries RSS Comments RSS Log in