Question

Guys I’m new to xml in Java.

I have the following task. I need to parse some xml files (specificallyh xcb-proto [X11]) to generate the equivalent request protocol in java. There is already a well defined xsd and the respective xml for the protocol. What is the best and easiest approach/parser to solve this?

Example of existant xml content:

  <request name="SetScreenSaver" opcode="107">
    <pad bytes="1" />
    <field type="INT16" name="timeout" />
    <field type="INT16" name="interval" />
    <field type="CARD8" name="prefer_blanking" enum="Blanking" />
    <field type="CARD8" name="allow_exposures" enum="Exposures" />
  </request>

This will generate a Java DOM (?) Object. And them with this I need to generate the given code in Java. For this case is:

Desired output:

public void setScreenSaver(int timeout, int interval, int preferBlanking, int allowExposures) {
    RequestOutputStream o = outputStream;
    synchronized (o) {
        o.beginRequest(107, 0, 1); // Major Opcode , Minor Opcode, ReqLength
        o.writeInt16(timeout);
        o.writeInt16(interval);
        o.writeInt8(preferBlanking);
        o.writeInt8(allowExposures);
        o.send();
    }
}

It seems that XSOM is the one that gives the easier approach…

PS: I have never manipulated xml files in Java :3

Answer 1

You should look into JAXB. It comes with a utility that will generate all your Java code using the .XSD file to determine the structure.