How can I convert a xmlNodePtr, with all the xml formated, into a string?

Question

I have the following, which makes an xmlNodePtr and then I would like to convert that node into a string, keeping all of the xml formatting and stuff:

std::string toString()
{
  std::string xmlString;

  xmlNodePtr noteKey = xmlNewNode(0, (xmlChar*)"noteKeyword");

  std::vector<Note *>::iterator iter = notesList_.begin();
  while(iter != notesList_.end())
  {
    xmlNodePtr noteNode = xmlNewNode(0, (xmlChar*)"Note");

    xmlNodePtr userNode = xmlNewNode(0, (xmlChar*)"User");
    xmlNodePtr dateNode = xmlNewNode(0, (xmlChar*)"Date");
    xmlNodePtr commentNode = xmlNewNode(0, (xmlChar*)"Comment");

    xmlNodeSetContent(userNode, (xmlChar*)(*iter)->getUser().c_str());
    xmlNodeSetContent(dateNode, (xmlChar*)(*iter)->getDate().c_str());
    xmlNodeSetContent(commentNode, (xmlChar*)(*iter)->getComment().c_str());

    xmlAddChild(noteNode, userNode);
    xmlAddChild(noteNode, dateNode);
    xmlAddChild(noteNode, commentNode);

    xmlAddChild(noteKey, noteNode);

    iter++;
  }

  xmlDocPtr noteDoc = noteKey->doc;

  //this doesn't appear to work, do i need to allocate some memory here?
  //or do something else?
  xmlOutputBufferPtr output;
  xmlNodeDumpOutput(output, noteDoc, noteKey, 0, 1, "UTF-8");

  //somehow convert output to a string?
  return xmlString;
}

My problem is that the node seems to get made fine but I don't know how to then convert the node into a std::string. I've also tried using xmlNodeListGetString and xmlDocDumpFormatMemory but I couldn't get either of them working. An example of how to convert from a node to a string would be much appreciated, Thanks.

Answer 1

The key was adding:

  xmlChar *s;
  int size;

  xmlDocDumpMemory((xmlDocPtr)noteKey, &s, &size);

  xmlString = (char *)s;
  xmlFree(s);