How to get an XML DOM while offline?

[Stefan Behnel]

william tanksley wrote:
> I want to parse my iTunes Library xml. All was well, until I unplugged
> and left for the train (where I get most of my personal projects
> done). All of a sudden, I discovered that apparently the presence of a
> DOCTYPE in the iTunes XML makes xml.dom.minidom insist on accessing
> the Internet... So suddenly I was unable to do any work.
> 
> I don't want to modify the iTunes XML; iTunes rewrites it too often.
> How can I prevent xml.dom.minidom from dying when it can't access the
> Internet?
> 
> Is there a simpler way to read the iTunes XML? (It's merely a plist,
> so the format is much simpler than general XML.)

Try lxml. Since version 2.0, its parsers will not access the network unless
you tell it to do so.

http://codespeak.net/lxml

It's also much easier to use than minidom and much faster:

http://blog.ianbicking.org/2008/03/30/python-html-parser-performance/

Stefan