Question

I’m experiencing a strange behaviour using minidom. I run the following code:

import os
import sys
from xml.dom import minidom
def generateReleaseXMLFile():
    modelPath = "%./model/"
    # Create the parser
    xsydoc  = minidom.Document()
    # Create the element ScriptModelVersion
    scriptModelVersion  = xsydoc.createElement('ScriptModelVersion')
    # Assign all the attributes
    scriptModelVersion.setAttribute("Major", "1")
    scriptModelVersion.setAttribute("Minor", "2")
    scriptModelVersion.setAttribute("Patch", "3")
    scriptModelVersion.setAttribute("ReseaseDate", "2011-05-20")
    # Append the root to the document
    xsydoc.appendChild(scriptModelVersion)
    # Create the file descriptor
    fdesc = open(modelPath+"Release.xml", "w")
    # Write the file
    fdesc.write(xsydoc.toprettyxml())
    # Close the file
    fdesc.close()
    print xsydoc.toprettyxml()

generateReleaseXMLFile()

It generates the following output:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<ScriptModelVersion Major="9" Minor="0" Patch="1" ReleaseDate="2011-05-20"/>

whithout the xml tag closure.
I really have no idea about why it’s keeping the document open. Did anyone experienced the same problem? Or am i simply forgetting somethink really obvious and i simply canot see the problem?

Answer 1

The <?xml ... ?> is not a tag, but the XML Declaration. There is not need to close it, your document is in perfect shape.