Namespace Handling [Universal Feed Parser]
Keywords: RSS, Atom, CDF, XML, feed, parser, Python

# Universal Feed Parser

Parse RSS and Atom feeds in Python. 3000 unit tests. Open source.

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## Namespace Handling

###

Universal Feed Parser attempts to expose all possible data in feeds, including elements in extension namespaces.

Some common namespaced elements are mapped to core elements. For further information about these mappings, see Reference.

Other namespaced elements are available as ``prefix`_`element``.

The namespaces defined in the feed are available in the parsed results as `namespaces`, a dictionary of `{prefix: namespaceURI}`. If the feed defines a default namespace, it is listed as `namespaces['']`.

### Example: Accessing namespaced elements

    >>> import feedparser
    >>> d = feedparser.parse('http://feedparser.org/docs/examples/prism.rdf')
    >>> d.feed.prism_issn
    u'0028-0836'
    >>> d.namespaces
    {'': u'http://purl.org/rss/1.0/',
     'prism': u'http://prismstandard.org/namespaces/1.2/basic/',
     'rdf': u'http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#'}

The prefix used to construct the variable name is not guaranteed to be the same as the prefix of the namespaced element in the original feed. If Universal Feed Parser recognizes the namespace, it will use the namespace's preferred prefix to construct the variable name. It will also list the namespace in the `namespaces` dictionary using the namespace's preferred prefix.

In the previous example, the namespace (`http://prismstandard.org/namespaces/1.2/basic/`) was defined with the namespace's preferred prefix (`prism`), so the `prism:issn` element was accessible as the variable `d.feed.prism_issn`. However, if the namespace is defined with a non-standard prefix, Universal Feed Parser will still construct the variable name using the preferred prefix, not the actual prefix that is used in the feed.

This will become clear with an example.

### Example: Accessing namespaced elements with non-standard prefixes

    >>> import feedparser
    >>> d = feedparser.parse('http://feedparser.org/docs/examples/nonstandard_prefix.rdf')
    >>> d.feed.prism_issn
    u'0028-0836'
    >>> d.feed.foo_issn
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
      File "feedparser.py", line 158, in __getattr__
        raise AttributeError, "object has no attribute '%s'" % key
    AttributeError: object has no attribute 'foo_issn'
    >>> d.namespaces
    {'': u'http://purl.org/rss/1.0/',
     'prism': u'http://prismstandard.org/namespaces/1.2/basic/',
     'rdf': u'http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#'}

This is the complete list of namespaces that Universal Feed Parser recognizes and uses to construct the variable names for data in these namespaces:

### Recognized Namespaces

Prefix | Namespace
--- | ---
`admin` | `http://webns.net/mvcb/`
`ag` | `http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/aggregation/`
`annotate` | `http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/annotate/`
`audio` | `http://media.tangent.org/rss/1.0/`
`blogChannel` | `http://backend.userland.com/blogChannelModule`
`cc` | `http://web.resource.org/cc/`
`creativeCommons` | `http://backend.userland.com/creativeCommonsRssModule`
`co` | `http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/company`
`content` | `http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/`
`cp` | `http://my.theinfo.org/changed/1.0/rss/`
`dc` | `http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/`
`dcterms` | `http://purl.org/dc/terms/`
`email` | `http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/email/`
`ev` | `http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/event/`
`feedburner` | `http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0`
`fm` | `http://freshmeat.net/rss/fm/`
`foaf` | `http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/`
`geo` | `http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/wgs84_pos#`
`icbm` | `http://postneo.com/icbm/`
`image` | `http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/image/`
`itunes` | `http://www.itunes.com/DTDs/PodCast-1.0.dtd`
`itunes` | `http://example.com/DTDs/PodCast-1.0.dtd`
`l` | `http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/link/`
`media` | `http://search.yahoo.com/mrss`
`pingback` | `http://madskills.com/public/xml/rss/module/pingback/`
`prism` | `http://prismstandard.org/namespaces/1.2/basic/`
`rdf` | `http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#`
`rdfs` | `http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#`
`ref` | `http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/reference/`
`reqv` | `http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/richequiv/`
`search` | `http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/search/`
`slash` | `http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/`
`soap` | `http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/`
`ss` | `http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/servicestatus/`
`str` | `http://hacks.benhammersley.com/rss/streaming/`
`sub` | `http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/subscription/`
`sy` | `http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/`
`taxo` | `http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/taxonomy/`
`thr` | `http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/threading/`
`ti` | `http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/textinput/`
`trackback` | `http://madskills.com/public/xml/rss/module/trackback/`
`wfw` | `http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/`
`wiki` | `http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/wiki/`
`xhtml` | `http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml`
`xml` | `http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace`

Universal Feed Parser treats namespaces as case-insensitive to match the behavior of certain versions of iTunes.

Data from namespaced elements is not sanitized (even if it contains HTML markup).

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