This function is used to convert S objects that are not already XMLNode objects into objects of that class. Specifically, it treats the object as a string and creates an XMLTextNode object.
asXMLTreeNode
(Package: XML) :
Convert a regular XML node to one for use in a "flat" tree
This coerces a regular R-based XML node (i.e. not an internal C-level node) to a form that can be inserted into a flat tree, i.e. one that stores the nodes in a non-hierarchical manner. It is thus used in conjunction with xmlHashTree and xmlFlatListTree. It adds id and env fields to the node and specializes the class by prefixing className to the class attribute.
xmlRoot
(Package: XML) :
Get the top-level XML node.
These are a collection of methods for providing easy access to the top-level XMLNode object resulting from parsing an XML document. They simplify accessing this node in the presence of auxillary information such as DTDs, file name and version information that is returned as part of the parsing.
xmlParent
(Package: XML) :
Get parent node of XMLInternalNode or ancestor nodes
xmlParent operates on an XML node and returns a reference to its parent node within the document tree. This works for an internal, C-level XMLInternalNode object created, for examply, using newXMLNode and related functions or xmlTree or from xmlTreeParse with the useInternalNodes parameter.
catalogResolve
(Package: XML) :
Look up an element via the XML catalog mechanism
XML parsers use a catalog to map generic system and public addresses to actual local files or potentially different remote files. We can use a catalog to map a reference such as http://www.omegahat.net/XSL/ to a particular directory on our local machine and then not have to modify any of the documents if we move the local files to another directory, e.g. install a new version in an alternate directory.
This function allows an R-level function to terminate an XML parser before it completes the processing of the XML content. This might be useful, for example, in event-driven parsing with xmlEventParse when we want to read through an XML file until we find a record of interest. Then, having retrieved the necessary information, we want to terminate the parsing rather than let it pointlessly continue. Instead of raising an error in our handler function, we can call xmlStopParser and return. The parser will then take control again and terminate and return back to the original R function from which it was invoked.
readHTMLList
(Package: XML) :
Read data in an HTML list or all lists in a document
This function and its methods are somewhat similar to readHTMLTable but read the contents of lists in an HTML document. We can specify the URL of the document or an already parsed document or an individual node within the document.
providing 
.