------------------------------------------------------------ 

The function that is giving the trouble. It returns a tm_list (just a
linked list) of messages, which is my class that contains an xmlDoc.

01 tm_list<message*>* message::get_child_messages(char *format_str)
02 {
03   tm_list<message*> *answer = new tm_list<message*>();
04   xmlChar* fmt; 
05 
06   for ( xmlNodePtr node = xmlDocGetRootElement(xml_doc_tree)->childs;
07         node != NULL;
08         node = node->next ) 
09   {
10     // this line looks for a "format" attribute. if it is an item,
11     // this is null, if this is a message, we have set the format for
12     // this node
13     fmt = xmlGetProp(node, get_format_xmlCharPtr());
14     
15     // if no format_str was passed in, always add it
16     // OR if it is a message of the correct format, add it
17     if (format_str == NULL || (fmt && 0 == msg_xml_strcmp(fmt, format_str)))
18     {
19       
20       // make it into a message
21       message *node_msg = new message(node); 
22
23	 // add it to the list       
24       answer->add(node_msg);	       
25     }			
26     delete fmt;		   
27   }				
28   return answer;		
29 }                            


------------------------------------------------------------
This is the constructor in line 21:

01 message::message(const xmlNodePtr node)
02 {
03   parent_link = node;                           // a self referencing link 
04   xmlNodePtr node_copy = xmlCopyNode(node, 1);
05   msg_set_vars();                               // sets class variables
06   xml_doc_tree = xmlNewDoc((xmlChar*)"1.0");
07   xmlDocSetRootElement(xml_doc_tree,node_copy);
08 }


------------------------------------------------------------
The message class contains an xml document. The format is exemplified by this example:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<message type="data" format="database">
  <item key="maxid">40</item>

<message type="data" format="project">
  <item key="name">GDK Free Software Management Software Project</item>
  <item key="id">1</item>
  <item key="description">This is a demo project that reflects the
  Team GDK Project implmentation cycle</item>
</message>

<!-- begin resources section -->
  <message type="data" format="resource">
    <item key="name">Karim Nassar</item>
    <item key="id">2</item>
  </message>
  <message type="data" format="resource">
    <item key="name">David Tucker</item>
    <item key="id">3</item>
  </message>
<!-- end resources section -->

etc...
------------------------------------------------------------

This is the exact xml that is causing me great troubles:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<message type="data" format="dataformat">
  <message type="data" format="task">
    <item key="name">Complete Rough Draft of Functional Specs</item>
    <item key="id">5</item>
    <item key="description">Give Eck the rough draft so that we can
      rewrite it</item>
    <item key="deliverable">The rough Draft</item>
    <item key="completion-date">20020208</item>
    <item key="resourceid">2</item>
    <item key="resourceid">3</item>
    <item key="projectid">1</item>
  </message>                                                            
</message>

------------------------------------------------------------

So, when I call get_child_messages(), an exact copy of the above XML
is returned in the message contained by the tm_list object. What
_should_ come back is:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<message type="data" format="task">				     
  <item key="name">Complete Rough Draft of Functional Specs</item> 
  <item key="id">5</item>					     
  <item key="description">Give Eck the rough draft so that we can  
    rewrite it</item>						     
  <item key="deliverable">The rough Draft</item>		     
  <item key="completion-date">20020208</item>			     
  <item key="resourceid">2</item>				     
  <item key="resourceid">3</item>				     
  <item key="projectid">1</item>				     
</message>                                                         

Can you help? Thanks for reading this far... :-)