Property Lists Parser for Python

This is a Python parser class for Apple’s Property Lists XML.

A Property Lists is a data representation used in Apple’s Mac OS X as a convenient way to store standard object types, such as string, number, boolean, and container objects (dictionary and array). Either datetime and binary data are also supported.

Quick start

You can run self-contained test, and parse any property list by running plist_parser.py. For example, parsing iTunes Liberary on your mac:

% python ./plist_parser.py ~/"Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml"

Usage

This project provides two classes (in plist_parser.py file):

• XmlPropertyListParser
• PropertyListParseError

You can use these classes by importing:

from plist_parser import XmlPropertyListParser, PropertyListParseError

or copy and paste on your code (Feel free to do it).

To parse a property list xml. First, instantiates XmlPropertyListParser:

>>> parser = XmlPropertyListParser()

Second, invoke parse method with XML contents or file-like object.

>>> parser.parse("""
<plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
    <key>Python</key>
    <string>.py</string>
  </dict>
</plist>
""")
{'Python': '.py'}

or

stream = open(...)
try:
  plist = parser.parse(stream)
finally:
  stream.close()

Requirement

You need no third-party library other than Python 2.4 or higher.

The XmlPropertyListParser class internally uses builtin libraries (listed below) to parse XML file.

• xml.sax
• or The C implementation of xml.etree if available (xml.etree is new in Python 2.5)

Notes

• plistlib Python 2.6 shipped with plistlib module. This module was previously only available in the Mac-specific library

Copyright

Copyright © 2008 Takanori Ishikawa <takanori.ishikawa@gmail.com>, All rights reserved.

License

The MIT license. See the LICENSE file for more details.