from xml.etree import ElementTree # calling example def main(): configdict = ConvertXmlToDict('config.xml') pprint(configdict) # you can access the data as a dictionary print configdict['settings']['color'] configdict['settings']['color'] = 'red' # or you can access it like object attributes print configdict.settings.color configdict.settings.color = 'red' root = ConvertDictToXml(configdict) tree = ElementTree.ElementTree(root) tree.write('config.new.xml') # Module Code: class XmlDictObject(dict): """ Adds object like functionality to the standard dictionary. """ def __init__(self, initdict=None): if initdict is None: initdict = {} dict.__init__(self, initdict) def __getattr__(self, item): return self.__getitem__(item) def __setattr__(self, item, value): self.__setitem__(item, value) def __str__(self): if self.has_key('_text'): return self.__getitem__('_text') else: return '' @staticmethod def Wrap(x): """ Static method to wrap a dictionary recursively as an XmlDictObject """ if isinstance(x, dict): return XmlDictObject((k, XmlDictObject.Wrap(v)) for (k, v) in x.iteritems()) elif isinstance(x, list): return [XmlDictObject.Wrap(v) for v in x] else: return x @staticmethod def _UnWrap(x): if isinstance(x, dict): return dict((k, XmlDictObject._UnWrap(v)) for (k, v) in x.iteritems()) elif isinstance(x, list): return [XmlDictObject._UnWrap(v) for v in x] else: return x def UnWrap(self): """ Recursively converts an XmlDictObject to a standard dictionary and returns the result. """ return XmlDictObject._UnWrap(self) def _ConvertDictToXmlRecurse(parent, dictitem): assert type(dictitem) is not type([]) if isinstance(dictitem, dict): for (tag, child) in dictitem.iteritems(): if str(tag) == '_text': parent.text = str(child) elif type(child) is type([]): # iterate through the array and convert for listchild in child: elem = ElementTree.Element(tag) parent.append(elem) _ConvertDictToXmlRecurse(elem, listchild) else: elem = ElementTree.Element(tag) parent.append(elem) _ConvertDictToXmlRecurse(elem, child) else: parent.text = str(dictitem) def ConvertDictToXml(xmldict): """ Converts a dictionary to an XML ElementTree Element """ roottag = xmldict.keys()[0] root = ElementTree.Element(roottag) _ConvertDictToXmlRecurse(root, xmldict[roottag]) return root def _ConvertXmlToDictRecurse(node, dictclass): nodedict = dictclass() if len(node.items()) > 0: # if we have attributes, set them nodedict.update(dict(node.items())) for child in node: # recursively add the element's children newitem = _ConvertXmlToDictRecurse(child, dictclass) if nodedict.has_key(child.tag): # found duplicate tag, force a list if type(nodedict[child.tag]) is type([]): # append to existing list nodedict[child.tag].append(newitem) else: # convert to list nodedict[child.tag] = [nodedict[child.tag], newitem] else: # only one, directly set the dictionary nodedict[child.tag] = newitem if node.text is None: text = '' else: text = node.text.strip() if len(nodedict) > 0: # if we have a dictionary add the text as a dictionary value (if there is any) if len(text) > 0: nodedict['_text'] = text else: # if we don't have child nodes or attributes, just set the text nodedict = text return nodedict def ConvertXmlToDict(root, dictclass=XmlDictObject): """ Converts an XML file or ElementTree Element to a dictionary """ # If a string is passed in, try to open it as a file if type(root) == type(''): root = ElementTree.parse(root).getroot() elif not isinstance(root, ElementTree.Element): raise TypeError, 'Expected ElementTree.Element or file path string' return dictclass({root.tag: _ConvertXmlToDictRecurse(root, dictclass)}) if __name__ == '__main__': main()