Ugh... XML.

ughxml.py

import re

from lxml import etree


def empty_generator():
    return
    yield


def parse(string_or_file):
    """ Parse string or file-like object and return the root element.
    """

    if isinstance(string_or_file, (str, bytes)):
        root = etree.fromstring(string_or_file)
    else:
        et = etree.parse(string_or_file)
        root = et.getroot()

    return GoddamnElement(root)


class GoddamnElement(object):

    def __init__(self, element):
        self._element = element

    def __iter__(self):
        for elem in self._element:
            yield GoddamnElement(elem)

    def __repr__(self):
        return "<GoddamnElement %s>" % self.namespaced_name()

    def find(self, tag, namespace=None):

        if namespace:
            tag = "{%s}%s" % (namespace, tag)

        elems = self._element.iter(tag)

        if elems is None:
            return empty_generator()

        for elem in elems:
            yield GoddamnElement(elem)

    def first(self, tag, namespace=None):
        for gdelem in self.find(tag, namespace):
            return gdelem

    @property
    def text(self):
        return self._element.text

    @property
    def name(self):
        tag = self._element.tag
        if "}" in tag:
            tag = tag.split("}")[-1]
        return tag

    @property
    def namespace(self):
        m = re.match("{(.*)}", self._element.tag)
        if m:
            return m.groups()[0]

    def namespaced_name(self):

        name = self.name
        ns = self.namespace

        if ns:
            name = "{%s}%s" % (ns, name)

        return name