XML::Atom::Util (3pm)

    use XML::Atom::Util qw( iso2dt );
    my $dt = iso2dt($entry->issued);

iso2dt($iso)

Transforms the \s-1ISO-8601\s0 date $iso into a DateTime object and returns the DateTime object.

encode_xml($str)

Encodes characters with special meaning in \s-1XML\s0 into entities and returns the encoded string.

Please see the XML::Atom manpage for author, copyright, and license information.