javax.xml.parsers

Class DocumentBuilderFactory

public abstract class DocumentBuilderFactory extends Object

Defines a factory API that enables applications to obtain a parser that produces DOM object trees from XML documents.

Version: $Revision: 226183 $, $Date: 2005-04-08 06:39:14 -0400 (Fri, 08 Apr 2005) $

Author: Jeff Suttor

Constructor Summary
protected DocumentBuilderFactory()
Method Summary
abstract ObjectgetAttribute(String name)
Allows the user to retrieve specific attributes on the underlying implementation.
abstract booleangetFeature(String name)

Get the state of the named feature.

Feature names are fully qualified {@link java.net.URI}s.

SchemagetSchema()
Gets the {@link Schema} object specified through the {@link #setSchema(Schema schema)} method.
booleanisCoalescing()
Indicates whether or not the factory is configured to produce parsers which converts CDATA nodes to Text nodes and appends it to the adjacent (if any) Text node.
booleanisExpandEntityReferences()
Indicates whether or not the factory is configured to produce parsers which expand entity reference nodes.
booleanisIgnoringComments()
Indicates whether or not the factory is configured to produce parsers which ignores comments.
booleanisIgnoringElementContentWhitespace()
Indicates whether or not the factory is configured to produce parsers which ignore ignorable whitespace in element content.
booleanisNamespaceAware()
Indicates whether or not the factory is configured to produce parsers which are namespace aware.
booleanisValidating()
Indicates whether or not the factory is configured to produce parsers which validate the XML content during parse.
booleanisXIncludeAware()

Get state of XInclude processing.

abstract DocumentBuildernewDocumentBuilder()
Creates a new instance of a {@link javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder} using the currently configured parameters.
static DocumentBuilderFactorynewInstance()
Obtain a new instance of a DocumentBuilderFactory.
abstract voidsetAttribute(String name, Object value)
Allows the user to set specific attributes on the underlying implementation.
voidsetCoalescing(boolean coalescing)
Specifies that the parser produced by this code will convert CDATA nodes to Text nodes and append it to the adjacent (if any) text node.
voidsetExpandEntityReferences(boolean expandEntityRef)
Specifies that the parser produced by this code will expand entity reference nodes.
abstract voidsetFeature(String name, boolean value)

Set a feature for this DocumentBuilderFactory and DocumentBuilders created by this factory.

Feature names are fully qualified {@link java.net.URI}s.

voidsetIgnoringComments(boolean ignoreComments)

Specifies that the parser produced by this code will ignore comments.

voidsetIgnoringElementContentWhitespace(boolean whitespace)
Specifies that the parsers created by this factory must eliminate whitespace in element content (sometimes known loosely as 'ignorable whitespace') when parsing XML documents (see XML Rec 2.10).
voidsetNamespaceAware(boolean awareness)
Specifies that the parser produced by this code will provide support for XML namespaces.
voidsetSchema(Schema schema)

Set the {@link Schema} to be used by parsers created from this factory.

voidsetValidating(boolean validating)
Specifies that the parser produced by this code will validate documents as they are parsed.
voidsetXIncludeAware(boolean state)

Set state of XInclude processing.

If XInclude markup is found in the document instance, should it be processed as specified in XML Inclusions (XInclude) Version 1.0.

XInclude processing defaults to false.

Constructor Detail

DocumentBuilderFactory

protected DocumentBuilderFactory()

Method Detail

getAttribute

public abstract Object getAttribute(String name)
Allows the user to retrieve specific attributes on the underlying implementation.

Parameters: name The name of the attribute.

Returns: value The value of the attribute.

Throws: IllegalArgumentException thrown if the underlying implementation doesn't recognize the attribute.

getFeature

public abstract boolean getFeature(String name)

Get the state of the named feature.

Feature names are fully qualified {@link java.net.URI}s. Implementations may define their own features. An {@link ParserConfigurationException} is thrown if this DocumentBuilderFactory or the DocumentBuilders it creates cannot support the feature. It is possible for an DocumentBuilderFactory to expose a feature value but be unable to change its state.

Parameters: name Feature name.

Returns: State of the named feature.

Throws: ParserConfigurationException if this DocumentBuilderFactory or the DocumentBuilders it creates cannot support this feature.

getSchema

public Schema getSchema()
Gets the {@link Schema} object specified through the {@link #setSchema(Schema schema)} method.

Returns: the {@link Schema} object that was last set through the {@link #setSchema(Schema)} method, or null if the method was not invoked since a {@link SAXParserFactory} is created.

Throws: UnsupportedOperationException For backward compatibility, when implementations for earlier versions of JAXP is used, this exception will be thrown.

Since: 1.5

isCoalescing

public boolean isCoalescing()
Indicates whether or not the factory is configured to produce parsers which converts CDATA nodes to Text nodes and appends it to the adjacent (if any) Text node.

Returns: true if the factory is configured to produce parsers which converts CDATA nodes to Text nodes and appends it to the adjacent (if any) Text node; false otherwise.

isExpandEntityReferences

public boolean isExpandEntityReferences()
Indicates whether or not the factory is configured to produce parsers which expand entity reference nodes.

Returns: true if the factory is configured to produce parsers which expand entity reference nodes; false otherwise.

isIgnoringComments

public boolean isIgnoringComments()
Indicates whether or not the factory is configured to produce parsers which ignores comments.

Returns: true if the factory is configured to produce parsers which ignores comments; false otherwise.

isIgnoringElementContentWhitespace

public boolean isIgnoringElementContentWhitespace()
Indicates whether or not the factory is configured to produce parsers which ignore ignorable whitespace in element content.

Returns: true if the factory is configured to produce parsers which ignore ignorable whitespace in element content; false otherwise.

isNamespaceAware

public boolean isNamespaceAware()
Indicates whether or not the factory is configured to produce parsers which are namespace aware.

Returns: true if the factory is configured to produce parsers which are namespace aware; false otherwise.

isValidating

public boolean isValidating()
Indicates whether or not the factory is configured to produce parsers which validate the XML content during parse.

Returns: true if the factory is configured to produce parsers which validate the XML content during parse; false otherwise.

isXIncludeAware

public boolean isXIncludeAware()

Get state of XInclude processing.

Returns: current state of XInclude processing

Throws: UnsupportedOperationException For backward compatibility, when implementations for earlier versions of JAXP is used, this exception will be thrown.

Since: 1.5

newDocumentBuilder

public abstract DocumentBuilder newDocumentBuilder()
Creates a new instance of a {@link javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder} using the currently configured parameters.

Returns: A new instance of a DocumentBuilder.

Throws: ParserConfigurationException if a DocumentBuilder cannot be created which satisfies the configuration requested.

newInstance

public static DocumentBuilderFactory newInstance()
Obtain a new instance of a DocumentBuilderFactory. This static method creates a new factory instance. This method uses the following ordered lookup procedure to determine the DocumentBuilderFactory implementation class to load: Once an application has obtained a reference to a DocumentBuilderFactory it can use the factory to configure and obtain parser instances.

Tip for Trouble-shooting

Setting the jaxp.debug system property will cause this method to print a lot of debug messages to System.err about what it is doing and where it is looking at.

If you have problems loading {@link DocumentBuilder}s, try:

 java -Djaxp.debug=1 YourProgram ....
 

Returns: New instance of a DocumentBuilderFactory

Throws: FactoryConfigurationError if the implementation is not available or cannot be instantiated.

setAttribute

public abstract void setAttribute(String name, Object value)
Allows the user to set specific attributes on the underlying implementation.

Parameters: name The name of the attribute. value The value of the attribute.

Throws: IllegalArgumentException thrown if the underlying implementation doesn't recognize the attribute.

setCoalescing

public void setCoalescing(boolean coalescing)
Specifies that the parser produced by this code will convert CDATA nodes to Text nodes and append it to the adjacent (if any) text node. By default the value of this is set to false

Parameters: coalescing true if the parser produced will convert CDATA nodes to Text nodes and append it to the adjacent (if any) text node; false otherwise.

setExpandEntityReferences

public void setExpandEntityReferences(boolean expandEntityRef)
Specifies that the parser produced by this code will expand entity reference nodes. By default the value of this is set to true

Parameters: expandEntityRef true if the parser produced will expand entity reference nodes; false otherwise.

setFeature

public abstract void setFeature(String name, boolean value)

Set a feature for this DocumentBuilderFactory and DocumentBuilders created by this factory.

Feature names are fully qualified {@link java.net.URI}s. Implementations may define their own features. An {@link ParserConfigurationException} is thrown if this DocumentBuilderFactory or the DocumentBuilders it creates cannot support the feature. It is possible for an DocumentBuilderFactory to expose a feature value but be unable to change its state.

All implementations are required to support the {@link javax.xml.XMLConstants#FEATURE_SECURE_PROCESSING} feature. When the feature is:

Parameters: name Feature name. value Is feature state true or false.

Throws: ParserConfigurationException if this DocumentBuilderFactory or the DocumentBuilders it creates cannot support this feature. NullPointerException If the name parameter is null.

setIgnoringComments

public void setIgnoringComments(boolean ignoreComments)

Specifies that the parser produced by this code will ignore comments. By default the value of this is set to false .

Parameters: ignoreComments boolean value to ignore comments during processing

setIgnoringElementContentWhitespace

public void setIgnoringElementContentWhitespace(boolean whitespace)
Specifies that the parsers created by this factory must eliminate whitespace in element content (sometimes known loosely as 'ignorable whitespace') when parsing XML documents (see XML Rec 2.10). Note that only whitespace which is directly contained within element content that has an element only content model (see XML Rec 3.2.1) will be eliminated. Due to reliance on the content model this setting requires the parser to be in validating mode. By default the value of this is set to false.

Parameters: whitespace true if the parser created must eliminate whitespace in the element content when parsing XML documents; false otherwise.

setNamespaceAware

public void setNamespaceAware(boolean awareness)
Specifies that the parser produced by this code will provide support for XML namespaces. By default the value of this is set to false

Parameters: awareness true if the parser produced will provide support for XML namespaces; false otherwise.

setSchema

public void setSchema(Schema schema)

Set the {@link Schema} to be used by parsers created from this factory.

When a {@link Schema} is non-null, a parser will use a validator created from it to validate documents before it passes information down to the application.

When errors are found by the validator, the parser is responsible to report them to the user-specified {@link org.w3c.dom.DOMErrorHandler} (or if the error handler is not set, ignore them or throw them), just like any other errors found by the parser itself. In other words, if the user-specified {@link org.w3c.dom.DOMErrorHandler} is set, it must receive those errors, and if not, they must be treated according to the implementation specific default error handling rules.

A validator may modify the outcome of a parse (for example by adding default values that were missing in documents), and a parser is responsible to make sure that the application will receive modified DOM trees.

Initialy, null is set as the {@link Schema}.

This processing will take effect even if the {@link #isValidating()} method returns false.

It is an error to use the http://java.sun.com/xml/jaxp/properties/schemaSource property and/or the http://java.sun.com/xml/jaxp/properties/schemaLanguage property in conjunction with a {@link Schema} object. Such configuration will cause a {@link ParserConfigurationException} exception when the {@link #newDocumentBuilder()} is invoked.

Note for implmentors

A parser must be able to work with any {@link Schema} implementation. However, parsers and schemas are allowed to use implementation-specific custom mechanisms as long as they yield the result described in the specification.

Parameters: schema Schema to use or null to remove a schema.

Throws: UnsupportedOperationException For backward compatibility, when implementations for earlier versions of JAXP is used, this exception will be thrown.

Since: 1.5

setValidating

public void setValidating(boolean validating)
Specifies that the parser produced by this code will validate documents as they are parsed. By default the value of this is set to false.

Note that "the validation" here means a validating parser as defined in the XML recommendation. In other words, it essentially just controls the DTD validation. (except the legacy two properties defined in JAXP 1.2. See here for more details.)

To use modern schema languages such as W3C XML Schema or RELAX NG instead of DTD, you can configure your parser to be a non-validating parser by leaving the {@link #setValidating(boolean)} method false, then use the {@link #setSchema(Schema)} method to associate a schema to a parser.

Parameters: validating true if the parser produced will validate documents as they are parsed; false otherwise.

setXIncludeAware

public void setXIncludeAware(boolean state)

Set state of XInclude processing.

If XInclude markup is found in the document instance, should it be processed as specified in XML Inclusions (XInclude) Version 1.0.

XInclude processing defaults to false.

Parameters: state Set XInclude processing to true or false

Throws: UnsupportedOperationException For backward compatibility, when implementations for earlier versions of JAXP is used, this exception will be thrown.

Since: 1.5