+/*!
+ * Returns named property for a given node as std::string.
+ */
+CONFIG_EXPORT std::string getProperty(xmlNodePtr theNode, const char* thePropName);
+
+/*!
+ * Returns normalized (lower case) named property for a given node as std::string.
+ */
+std::string getNormalizedProperty(xmlNodePtr theNode, const char* thePropName);
+
+/*!
+ * Checks if the given XML node has the given attribute,
+ * if yes - returns it's bool value, if no, or if the value can not
+ * be converted to bool - returns theDefault value.
+ * \param theAttributeName attribute to check
+ * \param theDefault default value on bad data
+ * \return the boolean result
+ */
+CONFIG_EXPORT bool getBooleanAttribute(xmlNodePtr theNode,
+ const char* theAttributeName,
+ bool theDefault);
+
+/*!
+ * Returns normalized (lower case) version of string.
+ * Should be used for case insensitive string matching.
+ */
+CONFIG_EXPORT std::string normalize(const char* theString);
+/*!
+ * Returns normalized (lower case) version of string.
+ * Should be used for case insensitive string matching.
+ */
+CONFIG_EXPORT std::string normalize(const std::string& theString);
+