Class XMLBuilder

java.lang.Object
com.jamesmurty.utils.XMLBuilder

public class XMLBuilder extends Object
XML Builder is a utility that creates simple XML documents using relatively sparse Java code. It is intended to allow for quick and painless creation of XML documents where you might otherwise be tempted to use concatenated strings, rather than face the tedium and verbosity of coding with JAXP (http://jaxp.dev.java.net/).

Internally, XML Builder uses JAXP to build a standard W3C Document model (DOM) that you can easily export as a string, or access and manipulate further if you have special requirements.

The XMLBuilder class serves as a wrapper of Element nodes, and provides a number of utility methods that make it simple to manipulate the underlying element and the document to which it belongs. In essence, this class performs dual roles: it represents a specific XML node, and also allows manipulation of the entire underlying XML document. The platform's default DocumentBuilderFactory and DocumentBuilder classes are used to build the document.

Author:
James Murty
  • Constructor Details

    • XMLBuilder

      protected XMLBuilder(Document xmlDocument)
      Construct a new builder object that wraps the given XML document. This constructor is for internal use only.
      Parameters:
      xmlDocument - an XML document that the builder will manage and manipulate.
    • XMLBuilder

      protected XMLBuilder(Element myElement, Element parentElement)
      Construct a new builder object that wraps the given XML document and element element. This constructor is for internal use only.
      Parameters:
      myElement - the XML element that this builder node will wrap. This element may be part of the XML document, or it may be a new element that is to be added to the document.
      parentElement - If not null, the given myElement will be appended as child node of the parentElement node.
  • Method Details

    • create

      Construct a builder for new XML document. The document will be created with the given root element, and the builder returned by this method will serve as the starting-point for any further document additions.
      Parameters:
      name - the name of the document's root element.
      Returns:
      a builder node that can be used to add more nodes to the XML document.
      Throws:
      FactoryConfigurationError
      ParserConfigurationException
    • parse

      public static XMLBuilder parse(InputSource inputSource) throws ParserConfigurationException, SAXException, IOException
      Construct a builder from an existing XML document. The provided XML document will be parsed and an XMLBuilder object referencing the document's root element will be returned.
      Parameters:
      inputSource - an XML document input source that will be parsed into a DOM.
      Returns:
      a builder node that can be used to add more nodes to the XML document.
      Throws:
      ParserConfigurationException
      FactoryConfigurationError
      ParserConfigurationException
      IOException
      SAXException
    • importXMLBuilder

      public XMLBuilder importXMLBuilder(XMLBuilder builder)
      Imports another XMLBuilder document into this document at the current position. The entire document provided is imported.
      Parameters:
      builder - the XMLBuilder document to be imported.
      Returns:
      a builder node at the same location as before the import, but now containing the entire document tree provided.
    • equals

      public boolean equals(Object obj)
      Overrides:
      equals in class Object
      Returns:
      true if the XML Document and Element objects wrapped by this builder are equal to the other's wrapped objects.
    • getElement

      public Element getElement()
      Returns:
      the XML element that this builder node will manipulate.
    • root

      public XMLBuilder root()
      Returns:
      the builder node representing the root element of the XML document. In other words, the same builder node returned by the initial create(String) or parse(InputSource) method.
    • getDocument

      public Document getDocument()
      Returns:
      the XML document constructed by all builder nodes.
    • xpathFind

      public XMLBuilder xpathFind(String xpath) throws XPathExpressionException
      Find the first element in the builder's DOM matching the given XPath expression.
      Parameters:
      xpath - An XPath expression that *must* resolve to an existing Element within the document object model.
      Returns:
      a builder node representing the first Element that matches the XPath expression.
      Throws:
      XPathExpressionException - If the XPath is invalid, or if does not resolve to at least one
      invalid reference
      Node.ELEMENT_NODE
      .
    • element

      public XMLBuilder element(String name)
      Add a named XML element to the document as a child of this builder node, and return the builder node representing the new child.
      Parameters:
      name - the name of the XML element.
      Returns:
      a builder node representing the new child.
      Throws:
      IllegalStateException - if you attempt to add a child element to an XML node that already contains a text node value.
    • elem

      public XMLBuilder elem(String name)
      Synonym for element(String).
      Parameters:
      name - the name of the XML element.
      Returns:
      a builder node representing the new child.
      Throws:
      IllegalStateException - if you attempt to add a child element to an XML node that already contains a text node value.
    • e

      public XMLBuilder e(String name)
      Synonym for element(String).
      Parameters:
      name - the name of the XML element.
      Returns:
      a builder node representing the new child.
      Throws:
      IllegalStateException - if you attempt to add a child element to an XML node that already contains a text node value.
    • attribute

      public XMLBuilder attribute(String name, String value)
      Add a named attribute value to the element represented by this builder node, and return the node representing the element to which the attribute was added (not the new attribute node).
      Parameters:
      name - the attribute's name.
      value - the attribute's value.
      Returns:
      the builder node representing the element to which the attribute was added.
    • attr

      public XMLBuilder attr(String name, String value)
      Parameters:
      name - the attribute's name.
      value - the attribute's value.
      Returns:
      the builder node representing the element to which the attribute was added.
    • a

      public XMLBuilder a(String name, String value)
      Parameters:
      name - the attribute's name.
      value - the attribute's value.
      Returns:
      the builder node representing the element to which the attribute was added.
    • text

      public XMLBuilder text(String value)
      Add a text value to the element represented by this builder node, and return the node representing the element to which the text was added (not the new text node).
      Parameters:
      value - the text value to add to the element.
      Returns:
      the builder node representing the element to which the text was added.
    • t

      public XMLBuilder t(String value)
      Synonmy for text(String).
      Parameters:
      value - the text value to add to the element.
      Returns:
      the builder node representing the element to which the text was added.
    • cdata

      public XMLBuilder cdata(byte[] data)
      Add a CDATA value to the element represented by this builder node, and return the node representing the element to which the data was added (not the new CDATA node).
      Parameters:
      data - the data value that will be Base64-encoded and added to a CDATA element.
      Returns:
      the builder node representing the element to which the data was added.
    • data

      public XMLBuilder data(byte[] data)
      Synonym for
      invalid reference
      #cdata(String)
      .
      Parameters:
      data - the data value to add to the element.
      Returns:
      the builder node representing the element to which the data was added.
    • d

      public XMLBuilder d(byte[] data)
      Synonym for
      invalid reference
      #cdata(String)
      .
      Parameters:
      data - the data value to add to the element.
      Returns:
      the builder node representing the element to which the data was added.
    • comment

      public XMLBuilder comment(String comment)
      Add a comment to the element represented by this builder node, and return the node representing the element to which the comment was added (not the new comment node).
      Parameters:
      comment - the comment to add to the element.
      Returns:
      the builder node representing the element to which the comment was added.
    • cmnt

      public XMLBuilder cmnt(String comment)
      Synonym for comment(String).
      Parameters:
      comment - the comment to add to the element.
      Returns:
      the builder node representing the element to which the comment was added.
    • c

      public XMLBuilder c(String comment)
      Synonym for comment(String).
      Parameters:
      comment - the comment to add to the element.
      Returns:
      the builder node representing the element to which the comment was added.
    • instruction

      public XMLBuilder instruction(String target, String data)
      Add an instruction to the element represented by this builder node, and return the node representing the element to which the instruction was added (not the new instruction node).
      Parameters:
      target - the target value for the instruction.
      data - the data value for the instruction
      Returns:
      the builder node representing the element to which the instruction was added.
    • inst

      public XMLBuilder inst(String target, String data)
      Parameters:
      target - the target value for the instruction.
      data - the data value for the instruction
      Returns:
      the builder node representing the element to which the instruction was added.
    • i

      public XMLBuilder i(String target, String data)
      Parameters:
      target - the target value for the instruction.
      data - the data value for the instruction
      Returns:
      the builder node representing the element to which the instruction was added.
    • reference

      public XMLBuilder reference(String name)
      Add a reference to the element represented by this builder node, and return the node representing the element to which the reference was added (not the new reference node).
      Parameters:
      name - the name value for the reference.
      Returns:
      the builder node representing the element to which the reference was added.
    • ref

      public XMLBuilder ref(String name)
      Synonym for reference(String).
      Parameters:
      name - the name value for the reference.
      Returns:
      the builder node representing the element to which the reference was added.
    • r

      public XMLBuilder r(String name)
      Synonym for reference(String).
      Parameters:
      name - the name value for the reference.
      Returns:
      the builder node representing the element to which the reference was added.
    • up

      public XMLBuilder up(int steps)
      Return the builder node representing the nth ancestor element of this node, or the root node if n exceeds the document's depth.
      Parameters:
      steps - the number of parent elements to step over while navigating up the chain of node ancestors. A steps value of 1 will find a node's parent, 2 will find its grandparent etc.
      Returns:
      the nth ancestor of this node, or the root node if this is reached before the nth parent is found.
    • up

      public XMLBuilder up()
      Return the builder node representing the parent of the current node.
      Returns:
      the parent of this node, or the root node if this method is called on the root node.
    • assertCurrentElementHasNoTextNodes

      protected void assertCurrentElementHasNoTextNodes()
      Throws:
      IllegalStateException - if the current element contains any child text nodes.
    • toWriter

      public void toWriter(Writer writer, Properties outputProperties) throws TransformerException
      Serialize the XML document to the given writer using the default TransformerFactory and Transformer classes. If output options are provided, these options are provided to the Transformer serializer.
      Parameters:
      writer - a writer to which the serialized document is written.
      outputProperties - settings for the Transformer serializer. This parameter may be null or an empty Properties object, in which case the default output properties will be applied.
      Throws:
      TransformerException
    • asString

      public String asString(Properties outputProperties) throws TransformerException
      Serialize the XML document to a string by delegating to the toWriter(Writer, Properties) method. If output options are provided, these options are provided to the Transformer serializer.
      Parameters:
      outputProperties - settings for the Transformer serializer. This parameter may be null or an empty Properties object, in which case the default output properties will be applied.
      Returns:
      the XML document as a string
      Throws:
      TransformerException
    • asString

      public String asString() throws TransformerException
      Serialize the XML document to a string excluding the XML declaration.
      Returns:
      the XML document as a string without the XML declaration at the beginning of the output.
      Throws:
      TransformerException