Download XML Parsing Using JAXP

XML Parsing Using Java
APIs
AIP Independence project
Fall 2010
XML overview



XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is a
language specification created by the W3C
A very general version of HTML
Format takes the form of arbitrary tags that
contain information


e.g. <recordCreationDate encoding="w3cdtf">2010-1006</recordCreationDate>
These tags are defined in XML schema
documents (.xsd)
JAXP


Java API for XML Processing, the default
Java XML library
There are two main default interfaces: SAX
and DOM
SAX

SAX (Simple API for XML)





Used for serial reading, analogous to a file stream
Triggers events as the cursor reads data
Faster and uses less memory
Doesn’t store the XML file in memory
The user is responsible for keeping track of
needed data
DOM

DOM (Document-Object Model)



Creates an actual internal tree representation of
the XML
Provides non-sequential access, allowing data to
be manipulated at will
Slower and takes more memory
A related API: JAXB

Java API for XML Binding



A separate and somewhat more sophisticated
approach
Using the schema document, XML tags are
bound as actual Java objects
Allows intuitive coding, but also memory-intensive
A simple example


This program uses SAX to print the provided
sample MODS document
Doesn’t apply any formatting or try to figure
out how to use the information yet, but this
should be possible using the MODS
specification