current_implementation.rb

# The problem is that the Person object currently has two sub-objects:
# PersonFirstname and PersonLastname, and both have a @value attribute, which
# is suboptimal.
# Is there a way to end up with a Person object that has both @firstname and
# @lastname, without extraneous child objects?

class PersonFirstname
  include HappyMapper
  tag "firstname"

  attribute :value, String
end

class PersonLastname
  include HappyMapper
  tag "lastname"
  
  attribute :value, String
end

class Person
  include HappyMapper
  tag "person"

  has_one :firstname, PersonFirstname
  has_one :lastname, PersonLastname
end

relevant_bit_of_source.xml

<!-- ... -->
<people>
    <person>
        <firstname value="john"/>
        <lastname value="doe"/>
    </person>
    <person>
        <firstname value="john"/>
        <lastname value="doe"/>
    </person>
</people>
<!-- ... -->