note Jenda <p>No it was a response to the root node. For your problem ... show us your code. It's true that the Char handler will never be called, but both the Start and End handlers should. In either case you of course can use XML::Rules for that XML as well, specify a handler for the student tag and it will obtain all the attributes. Or, it you do not need to handle the individual &lt;student&gt; tags as you read them, specify <c>student => 'as array',</c> or possibly <c>student => 'by name',</c> in the rules. And handle the array of students in <c>$attr->{student}</c> or access the individual students as <c>$attr->{$name}</c> (depends on the rule you specify for &lt;student&gt;) in the handler for &lt;class&gt;.</p> <!-- Node text goes above. Div tags should contain sig only --> <div class="pmsig"><div class="pmsig-105128"> <p>Jenda<br><table><tr><td> <a href="http://skender.be/supportdenmark/">Support Denmark!<br>Defend the free world!</a><br></td></tr></table></p> </div></div> 62782 706274