XML to Python data structure (de-serialization) (Python recipe) by David McCuskey

ActiveState Code (http://code.activestate.com/recipes/577267/)

'''
XML2Py - XML to Python de-serialization

This code transforms an XML document into a Python data structure

Usage:
    deserializer = XML2Py()
    python_object = deserializer.parse( xml_string )
    print xml_string
    print python_object
'''

from lxml import etree

class XML2Py():

    def __init__( self ):

        self._parser = parser = etree.XMLParser( remove_blank_text=True )
        self._root = None  # root of etree structure
        self.data = None   # where we store the processed Python structure

    def parse( self, xmlString ):
        '''
        processes XML string into Python data structure
        '''
        self._root = etree.fromstring( xmlString, self._parser )
        self.data = self._parseXMLRoot()
        return self.data

    def tostring( self ):
        '''
        creates a string representation using our etree object
        '''
        if self._root != None:
            return etree.tostring( self._root )

    def _parseXMLRoot( self ):
        '''
        starts processing, takes care of first level idisyncrasies
        '''
        childDict = self._parseXMLNode( self._root )
        return { self._root.tag : childDict["children"] }

    def _parseXMLNode( self, element ):
        '''
        rest of the processing
        '''
        childContainer = None # either Dict or List

        # process any tag attributes
        # if we have attributes then the child container is a Dict
        #   otherwise a List
        if element.items():
            childContainer = {}
            childContainer.update( dict( element.items() ) )
        else:
            childContainer = []


        if isinstance( childContainer, list ) and element.text:
            # tag with no attributes and one that contains text
            childContainer.append( element.text )

        else:
            # tag might have children, let's process them
            for child_elem in element.getchildren():

                childDict = self._parseXMLNode( child_elem )

              # let's store our child based on container type
                #
                if isinstance( childContainer, dict ):
                    # these children are lone tag entities ( eg, 'copyright' )
                    childContainer.update( { childDict["tag"] : childDict["children"] } )

                else:
                    # these children are repeated tag entities ( eg, 'format' )
                    childContainer.append( childDict["children"] )

        return { "tag":element.tag, "children": childContainer }


def main():

    xml_string = '''
    <documents>
        <document date="June 6, 2009" title="The Newness of Python" author="John Doe">
            <copyright type="CC" url="http://www.creativecommons.org/" date="June 24, 2009" />
            <text>Python is very nice. Very, very nice.</text>
            <formats>
                <format type="pdf">
                    <info uri="http://www.python.org/newness-of-python.pdf" pages="245" />
                </format>
                <format type="web">
                    <info uri="http://www.python.org/newness-of-python.html" />
                </format>
            </formats>
        </document>
    </documents>
    '''
    deserializer = XML2Py()
    python_object = deserializer.parse( xml_string )
    print xml_string
    print python_object


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()