class xmlobj(xml):
   """Implements a record object on top of the XML object.  Primarily this has to do with
      the organization of field values, which are normally <field]] attributes (but needn't be.)
   """
   def __init__ (self, defn=None, str=None, xml=None, cmd=None):
      """Create XML object from optional string input"""
      self._list = defn
      try:
         self._xml = xml._xml
      except:
         self._xml = xml

      if cmd:
         str = None
         self.parse_cmdline (cmd)

      if str:
         try:
            self.parse (str)
         except ParseError, message:
            raise ParseError, message

   # --------------------------------------------------------------
   # Getting and setting the value of the list definition.
   # --------------------------------------------------------------
   def define (self, list):
      self._list = list
   def defn (self):
      return self._list

   # --------------------------------------------------------------
   # Field reading.
   # --------------------------------------------------------------
   def __getitem__ (self, key):
      if self._xml == None: return ""
      return xmlapi.xmlobj_get (self._xml, self._list, key)
   def get (self, field):
      if self._xml == None: return ""
      return xmlapi.xmlobj_get (self._xml, self._list, key)
   def key (self):
      if self._xml == None: return ""
      return xmlapi.xmlobj_getkey (self._xml, self._list)

   # --------------------------------------------------------------
   # Field writing.  Note that we can choose element or field storage.
   # --------------------------------------------------------------
   def __setitem__ (self, key, value):
      if self._xml == None: self._xml = xmlapi.xml_create ("record")
      try:
         xmlapi.xmlobj_set (self._xml, self._list, key, value)
      except:
         xmlapi.xmlobj_set (self._xml, self._list, key, `value`)

   def set (self, key, value):
      if self._xml == None: self._xml = xmlapi.xml_create ("record")
      try:
         xmlapi.xmlobj_set (self._xml, self._list, key, value)
      except:
         xmlapi.xmlobj_set (self._xml, self._list, key, `value`)

   def set_elem (self, key, value):
      if self._xml == None: self._xml = xmlapi.xml_create ("record")
      xmlapi.xmlobj_set_elem (self._xml, self._list, key, value)

   # -------------------------------------------------------------
   # Formatting a record into a string using the square-bracket notation
   # -------------------------------------------------------------
   def format (self, format):
      if self._xml == None: self._xml = xmlapi.xml_create ("record")
      return xmlapi.xmlobj_format (self._xml, self._list, format)

   def parse_cmdline (self, str):    # TODO: move this into C!  And make it not suck!
      cmdlist = split(str)
      cmd = cmdlist[0]
      args = []
      curarg = ''
      for a in cmdlist[1:]:
         if curarg != '':
            curarg = curarg + ' ' + a
            if a[-1] == '"':
               args.append (curarg[:-1])
               curarg = ''
         else:
            if a[0] == '"':
               curarg = a[1:]
            else:
               args.append (a)
      if curarg != '': args.append (curarg)
               
      self.parse ('<action command="%s" parms="%d"/>' % (cmd, len(args)))
      for parm in args:
         p = xmlapi.xml_create('parm')
         xmlapi.xml_append(p, xmlapi.xml_createtext(parm))
         xmlapi.xml_append_pretty (self._xml, p)