What is the best simplest way to read in an XML file in Java application

Question

Currently our Java application uses the values held within a tab delimited   cfg file  We need to change this application so that it now uses an XML file   What is the best simplest library to use in order to read in values from this file

User · Answer

I ve only used jdom  It s pretty easy   Go here for documentation and to download it  http   www jdom org   If you have a very very large document then it s better not to read it all into memory  but use a SAX parser which calls your methods as it hits certain tags and attributes  You have to then create a state machine to deal with the incoming calls

User · Answer

Look into JAXB

User · Answer

Here s a really simple API that I created for reading simple XML files in Java  It s incredibly simple and easy to use  Hope it s useful for you   http   argonrain wordpress com 2009 10 27 000

User · Answer

Depending on your application and the scope of the cfg file  a properties file might be the easiest   Sure it isn t as elegant as xml but it certainly easier

User · Answer

Is there a particular reason you have chosen XML config files   I have done XML configs in the past  and they have often turned out to be more of a headache than anything else   I guess the real question is whether using something like the Preferences API might work better in your situation   Reasons to use the Preferences API over a roll-your-own XML solution    Avoids typical XML ugliness  DocumentFactory  etc   along with avoiding 3rd party libraries to provide the XML backend Built in support for default values  no special handling required for missing corrupt invalid entries  No need to sanitize values for XML storage  CDATA wrapping  etc  Guaranteed status of the backing store  no need to constantly write XML out to disk  Backing store is configurable  file on disk  LDAP  etc   Multi-threaded access to all preferences for free

User · Answer

Depending on your application and the scope of the cfg file  a properties file might be the easiest   Sure it isn t as elegant as xml but it certainly easier

User · Answer

This is what I use   http   marketmovers blogspot com 2014 02 the-easy-way-to-read-xml-in-java html  It sits on top of the standard JDK tools  so if it s missing some feature you can always use the JDK version     This really makes things easier for me   It s especially nice when I m reading a config file that was saved by and older version of the software  or was manually edited by a user   It s very robust and won t throw an exception if some data is not exactly in the format you expect

User · Answer

There are of course a lot of good solutions based on what you need  If it is just configuration  you should have a look at Jakarta commons-configuration and commons-digester   You could always use the standard JDK method of getting a document    import java io File  import javax xml parsers DocumentBuilder  import javax xml parsers DocumentBuilderFactory  import org w3c dom Document          File file   new File  some path    DocumentBuilderFactory dbf   DocumentBuilderFactory newInstance    DocumentBuilder db   dbf newDocumentBuilder    Document document   db parse file

User · Answer

Depending on your application and the scope of the cfg file  a properties file might be the easiest   Sure it isn t as elegant as xml but it certainly easier

User · Answer

Here s a really simple API that I created for reading simple XML files in Java  It s incredibly simple and easy to use  Hope it s useful for you   http   argonrain wordpress com 2009 10 27 000

User · Answer

Use java beans XMLDecoder  part of core Java SE since 1 4   XMLDecoder input   new XMLDecoder new FileInputStream  some path xml     MyConfig config    MyConfig  input readObject    input close      It s easy to write the configuration files by hand  or use the corresponding XMLEncoder with some setup to write new objects at run-time

User · Answer

Use java beans XMLDecoder  part of core Java SE since 1 4   XMLDecoder input   new XMLDecoder new FileInputStream  some path xml     MyConfig config    MyConfig  input readObject    input close      It s easy to write the configuration files by hand  or use the corresponding XMLEncoder with some setup to write new objects at run-time

User · Answer

The simplest by far will be Simple http   simple sourceforge net  you only need to annotate a single object like so   Root public class Entry        Attribute    private String a     Attribute    private int b      Element    private Date c      public String getSomething           return a            Root public class Configuration        ElementList inline true     private List lt Entry gt  entries      public List lt Entry gt  getEntries            return entries           Then all you have to do to read the whole file is specify the location and it will parse and populate the annotated POJO s  This will do all the type conversions and validation  You can also annotate for persister callbacks if required  Reading it can be done like so   Serializer serializer   new Persister    Configuration configuraiton   serializer read Configuration class  fileLocation

User · Answer

Use java beans XMLDecoder  part of core Java SE since 1 4   XMLDecoder input   new XMLDecoder new FileInputStream  some path xml     MyConfig config    MyConfig  input readObject    input close      It s easy to write the configuration files by hand  or use the corresponding XMLEncoder with some setup to write new objects at run-time

User · Answer

I ve only used jdom  It s pretty easy   Go here for documentation and to download it  http   www jdom org   If you have a very very large document then it s better not to read it all into memory  but use a SAX parser which calls your methods as it hits certain tags and attributes  You have to then create a state machine to deal with the incoming calls

User · Answer

This is what I use   http   marketmovers blogspot com 2014 02 the-easy-way-to-read-xml-in-java html  It sits on top of the standard JDK tools  so if it s missing some feature you can always use the JDK version     This really makes things easier for me   It s especially nice when I m reading a config file that was saved by and older version of the software  or was manually edited by a user   It s very robust and won t throw an exception if some data is not exactly in the format you expect

User · Answer

There are of course a lot of good solutions based on what you need  If it is just configuration  you should have a look at Jakarta commons-configuration and commons-digester   You could always use the standard JDK method of getting a document    import java io File  import javax xml parsers DocumentBuilder  import javax xml parsers DocumentBuilderFactory  import org w3c dom Document          File file   new File  some path    DocumentBuilderFactory dbf   DocumentBuilderFactory newInstance    DocumentBuilder db   dbf newDocumentBuilder    Document document   db parse file

User · Answer

Look into JAXB

User · Answer

Use java beans XMLDecoder  part of core Java SE since 1 4   XMLDecoder input   new XMLDecoder new FileInputStream  some path xml     MyConfig config    MyConfig  input readObject    input close      It s easy to write the configuration files by hand  or use the corresponding XMLEncoder with some setup to write new objects at run-time

User · Answer

Look into JAXB

User · Answer

What is the best simplest library to   use in order to read in values from   this file    As you re asking for the simplest library  I feel obliged to add an approach quite different to that in Guillaume s top-voted answer   Of the other answers  sjbotha s JDOM mention is closest to what I suggest     I ve come to think that for XML handling in Java  using the standard JDK tools is certainly not the simplest way  and that only in some circumstances  such as not being able to use 3rd party libraries  for some reason  it is the best way    Instead  consider using a good XML library  such as XOM  Here s how to read an XML file into a nu xom Document object   import nu xom Builder  import nu xom Document  import java io File          File file   new File  some path    Document document   new Builder   build file     So  this was just a little bit simpler  as reading the file into org w3c dom Document wasn t very complicated either  in the  pure JDK  approach  But the advantages of using a good library only start here  Whatever you re doing with your XML  you ll often get away with much simpler solutions  and less of your own code to maintain  when using a library like XOM  As examples  consider this vs  this  or this vs  this  or this post containing both XOM and W3C DOM examples   Others will provide counter-arguments  like these  for why sticking to Java s standard XML APIs may be worth it - these probably have merit  at least in some cases  although personally I don t subscribe to all of them  In any case  when choosing one way or the other  it s good to be aware of both sides of the story     This answer is part of my evaluation of XOM  which is a strong contender in my quest for finding the best Java XML library to replace dom4j

User · Answer

XML Code    lt  xml version  1 0   gt   lt company gt       lt staff id  1001  gt           lt firstname gt yong lt  firstname gt           lt lastname gt mook kim lt  lastname gt           lt nickname gt mkyong lt  nickname gt           lt salary gt 100000 lt  salary gt       lt  staff gt       lt staff id  2001  gt           lt firstname gt low lt  firstname gt           lt lastname gt yin fong lt  lastname gt           lt nickname gt fong fong lt  nickname gt           lt salary gt 200000 lt  salary gt       lt  staff gt   lt  company gt    Java Code   import javax xml parsers DocumentBuilderFactory  import javax xml parsers DocumentBuilder  import org w3c dom Document  import org w3c dom NodeList  import org w3c dom Node  import org w3c dom Element  import java io File   public class ReadXMLFile      public static void main String argv          try       File fXmlFile   new File   Users mkyong staff xml        DocumentBuilderFactory dbFactory   DocumentBuilderFactory newInstance        DocumentBuilder dBuilder   dbFactory newDocumentBuilder        Document doc   dBuilder parse fXmlFile       doc getDocumentElement   normalize         System out println  Root element      doc getDocumentElement   getNodeName         NodeList nList   doc getElementsByTagName  staff        System out println  ----------------------------         for  int temp   0  temp  lt  nList getLength    temp              Node nNode   nList item temp           System out println   nCurrent Element      nNode getNodeName             if  nNode getNodeType      Node ELEMENT NODE                Element eElement    Element  nNode              System out println  Staff id                                      eElement getAttribute  id                 System out println  First Name                                      eElement getElementsByTagName  firstname                                     item 0  getTextContent                 System out println  Last Name                                      eElement getElementsByTagName  lastname                                     item 0  getTextContent                 System out println  Nick Name                                      eElement getElementsByTagName  nickname                                     item 0  getTextContent                 System out println  Salary                                      eElement getElementsByTagName  salary                                     item 0  getTextContent                           catch  Exception e        e printStackTrace                  Output       ----------------  Root element  company ----------------------------  Current Element  staff Staff id   1001 First Name   yong Last Name   mook kim Nick Name   mkyong Salary   100000  Current Element  staff Staff id   2001 First Name   low Last Name   yin fong Nick Name   fong fong Salary   200000   I recommended you reading this  Normalization in DOM parsing with java - how does it work   Example source

User · Answer

What is the best simplest library to   use in order to read in values from   this file    As you re asking for the simplest library  I feel obliged to add an approach quite different to that in Guillaume s top-voted answer   Of the other answers  sjbotha s JDOM mention is closest to what I suggest     I ve come to think that for XML handling in Java  using the standard JDK tools is certainly not the simplest way  and that only in some circumstances  such as not being able to use 3rd party libraries  for some reason  it is the best way    Instead  consider using a good XML library  such as XOM  Here s how to read an XML file into a nu xom Document object   import nu xom Builder  import nu xom Document  import java io File          File file   new File  some path    Document document   new Builder   build file     So  this was just a little bit simpler  as reading the file into org w3c dom Document wasn t very complicated either  in the  pure JDK  approach  But the advantages of using a good library only start here  Whatever you re doing with your XML  you ll often get away with much simpler solutions  and less of your own code to maintain  when using a library like XOM  As examples  consider this vs  this  or this vs  this  or this post containing both XOM and W3C DOM examples   Others will provide counter-arguments  like these  for why sticking to Java s standard XML APIs may be worth it - these probably have merit  at least in some cases  although personally I don t subscribe to all of them  In any case  when choosing one way or the other  it s good to be aware of both sides of the story     This answer is part of my evaluation of XOM  which is a strong contender in my quest for finding the best Java XML library to replace dom4j

User · Answer

The simplest by far will be Simple http   simple sourceforge net  you only need to annotate a single object like so   Root public class Entry        Attribute    private String a     Attribute    private int b      Element    private Date c      public String getSomething           return a            Root public class Configuration        ElementList inline true     private List lt Entry gt  entries      public List lt Entry gt  getEntries            return entries           Then all you have to do to read the whole file is specify the location and it will parse and populate the annotated POJO s  This will do all the type conversions and validation  You can also annotate for persister callbacks if required  Reading it can be done like so   Serializer serializer   new Persister    Configuration configuraiton   serializer read Configuration class  fileLocation

User · Answer

There are of course a lot of good solutions based on what you need  If it is just configuration  you should have a look at Jakarta commons-configuration and commons-digester   You could always use the standard JDK method of getting a document    import java io File  import javax xml parsers DocumentBuilder  import javax xml parsers DocumentBuilderFactory  import org w3c dom Document          File file   new File  some path    DocumentBuilderFactory dbf   DocumentBuilderFactory newInstance    DocumentBuilder db   dbf newDocumentBuilder    Document document   db parse file

User · Answer

JAXB is simple to use and is included in Java 6 SE  With JAXB  or other XML data binding such as Simple  you don t have to handle the XML yourself  most of the work is done by the library  The basic usage is to add annotation to your existing POJO  These annotation are then used to generate an XML Schema for you data and also when reading writing your data from to a file

User · Answer

Look into JAXB

User · Answer

Depending on your application and the scope of the cfg file  a properties file might be the easiest   Sure it isn t as elegant as xml but it certainly easier

User · Answer

I ve only used jdom  It s pretty easy   Go here for documentation and to download it  http   www jdom org   If you have a very very large document then it s better not to read it all into memory  but use a SAX parser which calls your methods as it hits certain tags and attributes  You have to then create a state machine to deal with the incoming calls

User · Answer

Is there a particular reason you have chosen XML config files   I have done XML configs in the past  and they have often turned out to be more of a headache than anything else   I guess the real question is whether using something like the Preferences API might work better in your situation   Reasons to use the Preferences API over a roll-your-own XML solution    Avoids typical XML ugliness  DocumentFactory  etc   along with avoiding 3rd party libraries to provide the XML backend Built in support for default values  no special handling required for missing corrupt invalid entries  No need to sanitize values for XML storage  CDATA wrapping  etc  Guaranteed status of the backing store  no need to constantly write XML out to disk  Backing store is configurable  file on disk  LDAP  etc   Multi-threaded access to all preferences for free

User · Answer

JAXB is simple to use and is included in Java 6 SE  With JAXB  or other XML data binding such as Simple  you don t have to handle the XML yourself  most of the work is done by the library  The basic usage is to add annotation to your existing POJO  These annotation are then used to generate an XML Schema for you data and also when reading writing your data from to a file

User · Answer

There are of course a lot of good solutions based on what you need  If it is just configuration  you should have a look at Jakarta commons-configuration and commons-digester   You could always use the standard JDK method of getting a document    import java io File  import javax xml parsers DocumentBuilder  import javax xml parsers DocumentBuilderFactory  import org w3c dom Document          File file   new File  some path    DocumentBuilderFactory dbf   DocumentBuilderFactory newInstance    DocumentBuilder db   dbf newDocumentBuilder    Document document   db parse file

User · Answer

JAXB is simple to use and is included in Java 6 SE  With JAXB  or other XML data binding such as Simple  you don t have to handle the XML yourself  most of the work is done by the library  The basic usage is to add annotation to your existing POJO  These annotation are then used to generate an XML Schema for you data and also when reading writing your data from to a file

User · Answer

Is there a particular reason you have chosen XML config files   I have done XML configs in the past  and they have often turned out to be more of a headache than anything else   I guess the real question is whether using something like the Preferences API might work better in your situation   Reasons to use the Preferences API over a roll-your-own XML solution    Avoids typical XML ugliness  DocumentFactory  etc   along with avoiding 3rd party libraries to provide the XML backend Built in support for default values  no special handling required for missing corrupt invalid entries  No need to sanitize values for XML storage  CDATA wrapping  etc  Guaranteed status of the backing store  no need to constantly write XML out to disk  Backing store is configurable  file on disk  LDAP  etc   Multi-threaded access to all preferences for free

User · Answer

XML Code    lt  xml version  1 0   gt   lt company gt       lt staff id  1001  gt           lt firstname gt yong lt  firstname gt           lt lastname gt mook kim lt  lastname gt           lt nickname gt mkyong lt  nickname gt           lt salary gt 100000 lt  salary gt       lt  staff gt       lt staff id  2001  gt           lt firstname gt low lt  firstname gt           lt lastname gt yin fong lt  lastname gt           lt nickname gt fong fong lt  nickname gt           lt salary gt 200000 lt  salary gt       lt  staff gt   lt  company gt    Java Code   import javax xml parsers DocumentBuilderFactory  import javax xml parsers DocumentBuilder  import org w3c dom Document  import org w3c dom NodeList  import org w3c dom Node  import org w3c dom Element  import java io File   public class ReadXMLFile      public static void main String argv          try       File fXmlFile   new File   Users mkyong staff xml        DocumentBuilderFactory dbFactory   DocumentBuilderFactory newInstance        DocumentBuilder dBuilder   dbFactory newDocumentBuilder        Document doc   dBuilder parse fXmlFile       doc getDocumentElement   normalize         System out println  Root element      doc getDocumentElement   getNodeName         NodeList nList   doc getElementsByTagName  staff        System out println  ----------------------------         for  int temp   0  temp  lt  nList getLength    temp              Node nNode   nList item temp           System out println   nCurrent Element      nNode getNodeName             if  nNode getNodeType      Node ELEMENT NODE                Element eElement    Element  nNode              System out println  Staff id                                      eElement getAttribute  id                 System out println  First Name                                      eElement getElementsByTagName  firstname                                     item 0  getTextContent                 System out println  Last Name                                      eElement getElementsByTagName  lastname                                     item 0  getTextContent                 System out println  Nick Name                                      eElement getElementsByTagName  nickname                                     item 0  getTextContent                 System out println  Salary                                      eElement getElementsByTagName  salary                                     item 0  getTextContent                           catch  Exception e        e printStackTrace                  Output       ----------------  Root element  company ----------------------------  Current Element  staff Staff id   1001 First Name   yong Last Name   mook kim Nick Name   mkyong Salary   100000  Current Element  staff Staff id   2001 First Name   low Last Name   yin fong Nick Name   fong fong Salary   200000   I recommended you reading this  Normalization in DOM parsing with java - how does it work   Example source

User · Answer

The simplest by far will be Simple http   simple sourceforge net  you only need to annotate a single object like so   Root public class Entry        Attribute    private String a     Attribute    private int b      Element    private Date c      public String getSomething           return a            Root public class Configuration        ElementList inline true     private List lt Entry gt  entries      public List lt Entry gt  getEntries            return entries           Then all you have to do to read the whole file is specify the location and it will parse and populate the annotated POJO s  This will do all the type conversions and validation  You can also annotate for persister callbacks if required  Reading it can be done like so   Serializer serializer   new Persister    Configuration configuraiton   serializer read Configuration class  fileLocation

User · Answer

I ve only used jdom  It s pretty easy   Go here for documentation and to download it  http   www jdom org   If you have a very very large document then it s better not to read it all into memory  but use a SAX parser which calls your methods as it hits certain tags and attributes  You have to then create a state machine to deal with the incoming calls

User · Answer

Is there a particular reason you have chosen XML config files   I have done XML configs in the past  and they have often turned out to be more of a headache than anything else   I guess the real question is whether using something like the Preferences API might work better in your situation   Reasons to use the Preferences API over a roll-your-own XML solution    Avoids typical XML ugliness  DocumentFactory  etc   along with avoiding 3rd party libraries to provide the XML backend Built in support for default values  no special handling required for missing corrupt invalid entries  No need to sanitize values for XML storage  CDATA wrapping  etc  Guaranteed status of the backing store  no need to constantly write XML out to disk  Backing store is configurable  file on disk  LDAP  etc   Multi-threaded access to all preferences for free

User · Answer

The simplest by far will be Simple http   simple sourceforge net  you only need to annotate a single object like so   Root public class Entry        Attribute    private String a     Attribute    private int b      Element    private Date c      public String getSomething           return a            Root public class Configuration        ElementList inline true     private List lt Entry gt  entries      public List lt Entry gt  getEntries            return entries           Then all you have to do to read the whole file is specify the location and it will parse and populate the annotated POJO s  This will do all the type conversions and validation  You can also annotate for persister callbacks if required  Reading it can be done like so   Serializer serializer   new Persister    Configuration configuraiton   serializer read Configuration class  fileLocation

User · Answer

JAXB is simple to use and is included in Java 6 SE  With JAXB  or other XML data binding such as Simple  you don t have to handle the XML yourself  most of the work is done by the library  The basic usage is to add annotation to your existing POJO  These annotation are then used to generate an XML Schema for you data and also when reading writing your data from to a file

[java] What is the best/simplest way to read in an XML file in Java application?

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