Parsing PXML

PxmlParser converts a PXML document into a Pxml record containing strongly-typed .NET objects. You can obtain the XML string from a PND stream using GetPxml, or load it from a file. The PXML specification documents the full XML format.

PxmlParser is an instantiatable class implementing IPxmlParser — create an instance directly, or inject it via DI in ASP.NET Core projects (see ASP.NET Core integration).

Parse from a PND stream

using PndTools;
using PndTools.IO.Extensions;

using var stream = File.OpenRead("game.pnd");
var xmlString = stream.GetPxml();
var parser = new PxmlParser();
var pxml = parser.Parse(xmlString);

Parse from a file

var xmlString = File.ReadAllText("/tmp/PXML.xml");
var parser = new PxmlParser();
var pxml = parser.Parse(xmlString);

The Pxml model

A Pxml object has two top-level members:

• Package — metadata shared across the whole PND (id, version, author, titles, descriptions, icon)
• Applications — one or more applications bundled in the PND, each extending Package with its own executable info, categories, licences, and preview images

Most PNDs contain a single application, but the format supports bundling multiple.

Package metadata

var pkg = pxml.Package;

Console.WriteLine(pkg.Id);
Console.WriteLine(pkg.Version?.Major);
Console.WriteLine(pkg.Author?.Name);
Console.WriteLine(pkg.Author?.Website);

PxmlVersion exposes Major, Minor, Release, Build, and Type (e.g. release or beta) — all as nullable strings as the PXML spec does not require them all to be present.

Localised titles and descriptions

Titles and descriptions are localised by locale identifier. At least one en_US entry is required by the PXML spec.

var app = pxml.Applications[0];

var english = app.Titles.FirstOrDefault(t => t.Lang == "en_US");
Console.WriteLine(english?.Text);

foreach (var desc in app.Descriptions)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"{desc.Lang}: {desc.Text}");
}

Applications

foreach (var app in pxml.Applications)
{
    Console.WriteLine(app.Id);
    Console.WriteLine(app.Info?.Name);   // executable name
    Console.WriteLine(app.Info?.Type);   // e.g. "gui"
    Console.WriteLine(app.Info?.Path);   // path within the archive
}

Categories

Categories follow the FreeDesktop.org menu specification. Each Category has a Name and an optional Subcategory.

foreach (var category in app.Categories)
{
    Console.WriteLine(category.Name);             // e.g. "Game"
    Console.WriteLine(category.Subcategory?.Name); // e.g. "ActionGame"
}

Licences

foreach (var licence in app.Licenses)
{
    Console.WriteLine(licence.Name);          // e.g. "GPL"
    Console.WriteLine(licence.Url);
    Console.WriteLine(licence.SourceCodeUrl);
}

Preview images

PreviewPics holds paths to images within the archive. Use ExtractPreviewPics on a PndArchive to extract them — see Extracting files.

foreach (var pic in app.PreviewPics)
{
    Console.WriteLine(pic.Path);
}