Store data in a XML file using the DOM API in JAXP

by Amit


Okay, if you are like me- a Java developer and think that XML is an easy solution to most of your light-weight, persistent data storage and retrieval needs, simply because of its structured nature, I shall briefly describe you how I use Java API for XML processing (JAXP)- DOM API to store and facilitate easy retrieval of data for my application.

Here it goes:

Say, I have some information which I want to store (from my application) as given in file mapping.xml

While coding up the Java class which will write the data into a XML file, the DOM approach is:

  1. Create the DOM representation of the data- this is the in-memory representation
  2. Write it to the XML file using classes from javax.xml.transform package which transforms the DOM representation into the persistent XML file

The code that I would use has two parts to it:

  1. First part deals with the scenario in which the XML file already exists
  2. Second part takes care of the scenario in which I am creating the XML file for the first time- this time the root element of the XML has to be created, which is the difference from the first part

The above logic can be easily implemented using:


String xmlFile = "mapping.xml";
      File file = new File(xmlFile);
      if (file.exists()) {
      //then code for first part
      }else
      {
          //code for second part
      }

Here is the Java source code:


private void writeToXML(String arg1, String arg4, String arg7) throws IOException, SAXException, ParserConfigurationException {


   
     String xmlFile = "mapping.xml";
      File file = new File(xmlFile);
      if (file.exists()) {
       
       

          DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();

          // Create the builder and parse the file


          Document doc = factory.newDocumentBuilder().parse(xmlFile);

          org.w3c.dom.Element mddevice = doc.getDocumentElement();
       
          org.w3c.dom.Element new_mddevice = doc.createElement("mddevice");
       

           new_mddevice.setAttribute("name", arg1);

              org.w3c.dom.Element blockdevice = doc.createElement("device");

              blockdevice.setAttribute("name", arg4);

              new_mddevice.appendChild(blockdevice);

              org.w3c.dom.Element mountpoint = doc.createElement("mountpoint");
              new_mddevice.appendChild(mountpoint);
              mountpoint.setTextContent(arg7);

              mddevice.appendChild(new_mddevice);
           
          try {
              TransformerFactory tranFactory = TransformerFactory.newInstance();
              Transformer aTransformer = tranFactory.newTransformer();

              Source src = new DOMSource(doc);
              System.out.println("Starting the XML file creation");
           
              Result dest = new StreamResult("mapping.xml");
              aTransformer.transform(src, dest);


          } catch (Exception e) {
              System.out.println("Stream error" + e.getMessage());
          }
      } else {


          try {


              //Create instance of DocumentBuilderFactory
              DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
              //Get the DocumentBuilder
              DocumentBuilder docBuilder = factory.newDocumentBuilder();
              //Create blank DOM Document
              org.w3c.dom.Document doc = docBuilder.newDocument();


              //create the root element
              org.w3c.dom.Element root = doc.createElement("raidmap");

              doc.appendChild(root);

              org.w3c.dom.Element mddevice = doc.getDocumentElement();
              org.w3c.dom.Element new_mddevice = doc.createElement("mddevice");


              new_mddevice.setAttribute("name", arg1);

              org.w3c.dom.Element blockdevice = doc.createElement("device");

              blockdevice.setAttribute("name", arg4);

              new_mddevice.appendChild(blockdevice);

              org.w3c.dom.Element mountpoint = doc.createElement("mountpoint");
              new_mddevice.appendChild(mountpoint);
              mountpoint.setTextContent(arg7);





              mddevice.appendChild(new_mddevice);
              try {
                  TransformerFactory tranFactory = TransformerFactory.newInstance();
                  Transformer aTransformer = tranFactory.newTransformer();

                  Source src = new DOMSource(doc);
                  Result dest = new StreamResult("mapping.xml");
                  aTransformer.transform(src, dest);




              } catch (Exception e) {
                  System.out.println("Stream error" + e.getMessage());
              }

          } catch (Exception e) {
              System.err.println(e.toString());
          }
      }
  }

Note: arg1, arg4, arg7 are the “data” that I will store in the XML file; please
change it to suit your needs

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