This argument currently only supports one value which is the constant LIBXML_NOEMPTYTAGS. This option makes sure that you do not end up with <tag /> but instead, <tag></tag>. This can make things easier if you need more predictable text to perform other changes on later.

He also noticed some other changes that the option made in his XML documents, specifically a size increase issue with spaces. Code samples are included to show these differences.

Shortly after my last blog post, I got a very helpful email from Rob Richards, who offered to help me with my trials and tribulations. He took a quick look at the schema for package.xml, and a sample package.xml and was able to find two small tweaks to make parsing actually work (gasp). This changes everything. I am abandoning the creation of a relax NG schema in favor of the battle-tested xsd. The error messages for xsd validation are far clearer than the rng ones.

The code included shows how much simpler the error messages are with the XSD validation option versus the RNG ones.