Question

I’m looking for an easier way to generate and modify an XML file in Java.
What I want to do is something like this:

<?xml version = "1"?>
<exchange>
 <name> Exchange_1 </name>
 <queue> Queue_1 </queue>
 <queue> Queue_2 </queue>
</exchange>
<exchange>
 <name> Exchange_2 </name>
 <queue> Queue_3 </queue>
 <queue> Queue_4 </queue>
</exchange>

It doesnt have to conform to any standard because this file is written/read by the same program. What I need to is to be able to modify the elements.
As you can see, this is an exchange-queue description. So when I add a new exchange, I want to create a new entry, and then when I bind queues to that exchange they need to go under the tag for that exchange.

I want to able to read this file later and see what exchanges exist and what queues are bound to them. But I also want to be able to remove queues and exchanges. So for example when I remove a queue, I only remove that <queue> element, but when I remove an exchange, I want to remove the whole <exchange> with its enclosing <queue>s.

Is there an easier/efficient way of doing something like this?

Thank you.

Answer 1

Yes, there is an easier way: Don’t use XML.

Instead, use a Queue of Serializable objects and serialize the queue to disk for later deserialization.

IMHO, XML really, really sucks.