Question

I just want to download the source as a string. Then stick that XML (which is currently a string) into a parser.

Answer 1

Using a SAX parser implies you have an org.xml.sax.ContentHandler that can accept callbacks from your parser. I wonder what that ContentHandler is and what use you intend to make of the callbacks.

You can wrap a StringReader around your string and pass it to a null transform that translates between a StreamSource and a SAXResult like so:

void parseStringWithSAX (String xmlString, ContentHandler handler)
    throws TransformerConfigurationException, TransformerException  {
    Source source = new StreamSource (new StringReader (xmlString));
    Result result = new SAXResult (handler);
    TransformerFactory tf = TransformerFactory.newInstance();
    Transformer t = tf.newTransformer();
    t.transform(source, result);
}

Ari.