XML2Dict Patch for handling empty text, returned as None. NoneType has no String Methods

encoder_empty_text.patch

diff --git a/encoder.py b/encoder.py                                                                                                                                                                                                    
index 9b4dc41..f5c1829 100644                                                                                                                                                                                                           
--- a/encoder.py                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
+++ b/encoder.py                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
@@ -34,9 +34,12 @@ class XML2Dict(object):
             ctag = child.tag
             cattr = child.attrib
             ctree = self._parse_node(child)
+            ctext = child.text
+            if ctext:
+                ctext = ctext.strip().encode(self._coding)

             if not ctree:
-                cdict = self._make_dict(ctag, child.text.strip().encode(self._coding), cattr)
+                cdict = self._make_dict(ctag, ctext, cattr)
             else:
                 cdict = self._make_dict(ctag, ctree, cattr)

Better import for elementtree

try:
import cElementTree as etree
except ImportError:
try:
import xml.etree.ElementTree as etree
except ImportError:
from elementtree import ElementTree as etree

Thanks for your path, I have just update the package follow your code.