read plist files in non-XML format using python

Question

I am reading MacOS data that is in plist (propertly list) format that is not in the XML format, not in the binary format, but in the other ascii format. For example:

addr= {
    City = "San Francisco Bay Area";
}

I am trying to parse this into a Python dictionary. Unfortunately, plistlib.loads returns InvalidFileException() when I try to parse it:

import plistlib

plist=b"""
addr= {
    City = "San Francisco Bay Area";
}
"""

print( plistlib.loads( plist ) )

Produces:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "x.py", line 9, in <module>
    print( plistlib.loads( plist ) )
  File "/Users/simsong/anaconda/lib/python3.6/plistlib.py", line 1024, in loads
    fp, fmt=fmt, use_builtin_types=use_builtin_types, dict_type=dict_type)
  File "/Users/simsong/anaconda/lib/python3.6/plistlib.py", line 1009, in load
    raise InvalidFileException()
plistlib.InvalidFileException: Invalid file

What's the correct way to do this?

Answer 1

You are talking about plist files in the JSON format. Your example is not JSON.

Let's start with this sample plist in XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist SYSTEM "file://localhost/System/Library/DTDs/PropertyList.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Author</key>
    <string>William Shakespeare</string>
    <key>Lines</key>
    <array>
        <string>It is a tale told by an idiot,</string>
        <string>Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.</string>
    </array>
    <key>Birthdate</key>
    <integer>1564</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

And convert it to JSON format:

plutil -convert json sample.plist 

{"Author":"William Shakespeare","Birthdate":1564,"Lines":["It is a tale told by an idiot,","Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."]}

Now you can read this using the JSON library.

import json

plist_text = '{"Author":"William Shakespeare","Birthdate":1564,"Lines":["It is a tale told by an idiot,","Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."]}'

plist = json.loads(plist_text)

print('The author is ' + plist['Author'])

Output:

$ python3 plist.py 
$ The author is William Shakespeare