Go's XML parser seems to have trouble with empty elements. Tested with: 1.0.3 and 16533:7cfa82648086

xmlbug.go

package xmlparse

import (
  "encoding/xml"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"strings"
	"testing"
)

const XML_DATA_BAD = `<mediawiki xmlns="http://www.mediawiki.org/xml/export-0.8/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.mediawiki.org/xml/export-0.8/ http://www.mediawiki.org/xml/export-0.8.xsd" version="0.8" xml:lang="en">
  <siteinfo>
    <namespaces>
      <namespace key="0" case="first-letter"></namespace>
    </namespaces>
  </siteinfo>
  <page>
    <title>AccessibleComputing</title>
  </page>
</mediawiki>`

const XML_DATA_GOOD = `<mediawiki xmlns="http://www.mediawiki.org/xml/export-0.8/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.mediawiki.org/xml/export-0.8/ http://www.mediawiki.org/xml/export-0.8.xsd" version="0.8" xml:lang="en">
  <siteinfo>
    <namespaces>
      <namespace key="0" case="first-letter">something</namespace>
    </namespaces>
  </siteinfo>
  <page>
    <title>AccessibleComputing</title>
  </page>
</mediawiki>`

// Emit xml.Token instances on a channel, closing it when the end
// of the stream is reached.
func parseTokensFromReader(reader io.Reader) chan xml.Token {
	tokens := make(chan xml.Token)
	go func() {
		decoder := xml.NewDecoder(reader)
		for {
			token, err := decoder.Token()
			if err != nil {
				if err == io.EOF {
					close(tokens)
					return
				} else {
					panic(fmt.Sprintf("Failed to read token: %v", err))
				}
			} else {
				tokens <- token
			}
		}
	}()
	return tokens
}

func testXmlData(t *testing.T, xml_data string) {
	var (
		stack []string
		title string
	)
	for t := range parseTokensFromReader(strings.NewReader(xml_data)) {
		switch token := t.(type) {
		case xml.StartElement:
			stack = append(stack, token.Name.Local)
		case xml.EndElement:
			stack = stack[:len(stack)-1]
		case xml.CharData:
			if len(stack) > 0 && stack[len(stack)-1] == "title" {
				title = string(token)
			}
		}
	}
	if title != "AccessibleComputing" {
		t.Errorf("The titles do not match: %v", title)
	}
}

// Using a string reader 
func TestBadXML(t *testing.T) {
	testXmlData(t, XML_DATA_BAD)
}

func TestGoodXML(t *testing.T) {
	testXmlData(t, XML_DATA_GOOD)
}