/** @page libsbml-python-reading-files Reading and writing SBML content from your software

This section summarizes how to read and write SBML content using the
facilities provided by the libSBML Python API.

@section rf-started Getting started: the 1-minute introduction

In LibSBML, the class libsbml::SBMLDocument is used as a top-level
container for storing SBML content and data associated with it (such as
warnings and error messages).  Here is a simple example to start this
discussion, using Python in interactive mode:
@verbatim
>>> from libsbml import *
>>> reader = SBMLReader()
>>> document = reader.readSBML("examples/sample-models/from-spec/level-2/enzymekinetics.xml")
>>> document.getNumErrors()
0
>>>
@endverbatim

The code above illustrates probably the simplest possible use of libsbml:
reading a model and printing any errors encountered.  The code begins with
a Python <code>import</code> command to load the libSBML API into the
running Python interpreter.  Next, it instantiates an libsbml::SBMLReader
object and stores it in a variable called <code>reader</code>.  Then, it
uses this object to read an SBML model stored in a file, creating an
libsbml::SBMLDocument object in the process and storing it in the variable
<code>document</code>.  Finally, it calls on the
libsbml::SBMLDocument::getNumErrors() method to check if any errors were
encountered.


@section rf-reading Reading SBML

As shown in the example above, SBML may be read from a file or an in-memory
character string into a libsbml::SBMLDocument object.  LibSBML defines two
basic, global functions for reading SBML:

@li <code>libsbml::SBMLDocument libsbml::readSBML(string filename)</code>.
This function takes a file name, attempts to read an SBML document from the
file, and returns a libsbml::SBMLDocument object if successful.

@li <code>libsbml::SBMLDocument libsbml::readSBMLFromString(string
xml)</code>.  This function takes a string assumed to contain XML content,
attempts to read an SBML document from the string, and returns a
libsbml::SBMLDocument object if successful.

The model may be either in SBML Level&nbsp;1 or SBML Level&nbsp;2 format.
LibSBML implements an unified object model for SBML that encompasses both
Level&nbsp;1 and Level&nbsp;2, so applications generally do not need to
worry about differences in syntax between these definitions of SBML when
reading and writing models.  (However, applications still need to be
concerned about the @em constructs used and how they are interpreted, since
there are substantial differences between SBML Level&nbsp;1 and
Level&nbsp;2!)


@section rf-sbmldocument The libsbml::SBMLDocument container

As might be deduced from the examples so far, an libsbml::SBMLDocument
object in libSBML represents a whole SBML model and its associated data.
The libsbml::SBMLDocument class corresponds roughly to the class
<i>Sbml</i> defined in the SBML Level&nbsp;2 specification, but it does not
have a direct correspondence in SBML Level&nbsp;1.  (But, it is created by
libSBML no matter whether the model is Level&nbsp;1 or Level&nbsp;2.)

libsbml::SBMLDocument is derived from libsbml::SBase, so that it contains
the usual libsbml::SBase attributes (in SBML Level&nbsp;2 Version&nbsp;3)
of "metaid" and "sboTerm", as well as the subelements "notes" and
"annotation".  It also contains the attributes "level" and "version"
indicating the Level and Version of the SBML read.  libsbml::SBase (and
thus its subclasses such as libsbml::SBMLDocument) provides methods for
querying this information:

@li <code>int libsbml::SBMLDocument::getLevel()</code> returns the SBML
Level of the model.

@li <code>int libsbml::SBMLDocument::getVersion()</code> returns the SBML
Version within the Level of the model.

Of course, the whole point of reading an SBML file or data stream is to get
at the SBML model it contains.  The following method allows access to the
Model object within an SBML document:

@li <code>libsbml::SBMLDocument::getModel()</code> returns a libsbml::Model
object for the SBML model contained in the libsbml::SBMLDocument.

Here is an example of using this:
@verbatim
>>> from libsbml import *
>>> reader = SBMLReader()
>>> document = reader.readSBML("examples/sample-models/from-spec/level-2/enzymekinetics.xml")
>>> model = document.getModel()
>>> model.getNumSpecies()
4
>>> 
@endverbatim

libsbml::SBMLDocument also acts to log any problems encountered while
reading the model from the file or data stream.  Whether the problems are
warnings or errors, they are reported through a single common interface
involving the object class SBMLError.  The example earlier on this page
already showed some of the methods available for accessing errors and
warnings; here is a slightly more complete list:

@li <code>int SBMLDocument::getNumErrors()</code> returns a count of the
diagnostic messages logged during while attempting to read an SBML model
using either libsbml::readSBML(filename) or
libsbml::readFromString(string).

@li <code>libsbml::SBMLError libsbml::SBMLDocument::getError(int n)</code>
returns the error indexed by integer @c n in the error log.  The
libsbml::SBMLError object class provides methods for displaying an error
message, assessing the severity of the problem encountered, and for finding
out the line and column number of where the problem occurred in the SBML
input.

@li <code>libsbml::SBMLDocument::printErrors()</code> prints to standard
output all of the errors and diagnostics logged with the given
libsbml::SBMLDocument().

@li <code>libsbml::SBMLDocument::printErrors(ostream stream)</code> is
identical to the method above, but prints all of the diagnostics to the
given output stream instead of the terminal.

Finally, another set of libsbml::SBMLDocument methods worth mentioning in
the context of reading SBML are those for running consistency-checking and
validation rules on the SBML content.  These methods assess whether the
SBML is legal according to basic rules listed in the SBML Level&nbsp;2
Version&nbsp;2 and Version&nbsp;3 specification documents.  Note that they
are mostly structural checks, in the sense that they can indicate whether
the SBML is properly constructed; they cannot tell if a model is nonsense.
(But at least they can assess whether it's syntactically correct
nonsense!).

@li <code>int libsbml::SBMLDocument::checkConsistency()</code> performs a
set of structural and mathematical checks on the SBML content and reports
the number of failed checks (errors) encountered.  Use the
libsbml::SBMLDocument::getNumErrors() and
libsbml::SBMLDocument::getError(int n) interfaces to examine the individual
errors.

@li <code>int libsbml::SBMLDocument::checkL1Compatibility()</code> peforms
a set of semantic consistency checks on the document to establish whether
it can be converted to SBML Level&nbsp;1, and returns the number of
failures.  If all the checks succeed, it returns 0.

@li <code>int libsbml::SBMLDocument::checkL2v1Compatibility()</code>
peforms a set of semantic consistency checks on the document to establish
whether it can be converted to SBML Level&nbsp;2 Version 1, and returns the
number of failures.  If all the checks succeed, it returns 0.

@li <code>int libsbml::SBMLDocument::checkL2v2Compatibility()</code>
peforms a set of semantic consistency checks on the document to establish
whether it can be converted to SBML Level&nbsp;2 Version&nbsp;2, and
returns the number of failures.  If all the checks succeed, it returns 0.

At the time of this writing, the most recent release of SBML is
Level&nbsp;2 Version&nbsp;3, which is why the compatibility checks above
only refer to Level&nbsp;2 Version&nbsp;2 at the most.


@section rf-writing Writing SBML

Writing SBML is, in the end, a very simple matter in libSBML.  The library
provides the following two global functions for this purposes:

@li <code>int libsbml::writeSBML(SBMLDocument d, string filename)</code>
writes the given SBML document to a file, and returns either @c 1 on
success or @c 0 on failure.  Reasons for failure can be, for example, that
the named file could not be opened for writing.

@li <code>int libsbml::writeSBML(SBMLDocument d, ostream stream)</code>
writes the given SBML document to an <code>ostream</code> output stream,
and returns either @c 1 on success or @c 0 on failure.

@li <code>string libsbml::writeSBMLToString(SBMLDocument d)</code> returns
the given SBML document as a character string, or returns an empty string
if a failure occurred.



*/
