Question

I’ve been searching for a simple example(s) each for read/ write/ edit XML for android. The file can be saved in res/raw folder or assets/ other folder of the application file structure. But NO tutorial is proper with easy code samples.

Some tutorials talk about different XML parsers like- SAX, DOM etc but it will be better to have all 3 examples using a particular API/ parser. Unlike SAX which is ONLY to read xml.

http://www.mkyong.com/java/how-to-modify-xml-file-in-java-dom-parser/
This is a good DOM tutorial but it’s not for android. I have problem deciding where to store the xml file !! Creating InputStream & StreamResult or other objects for android.

So please point out some simple examples for 1) read 2) write 3) edit using a SINGLE api/ parser/ framework- say DOM or other. Which also includes where & how to store that file 1) internal storage 2) external (SD)

Hope this also helps other newbies.

Answer 1

Well I would love to help you on the writing XML portion of your problem if you could still use assistance. Yet I need help myself on the subject of editing the XML. I have an idea of how to edit the XML if I was to use string parsing, but I have no clue of how to go about updating the original XML file… [Sorry if I lost you there.] But I am going to edit a code that has suited me so you can take a peek. 🙂
-Kai (A NEWB As Well)
Reading From XML In Android 🙂

The Demo XML

<UltraSpecialEvents>
   <UltraSpecialEvent Name= "USE1">
      <UltraSpecialInfo Name="USI1" Detail="Blah" TimeStamp="hh:mm:ss" />
      <UltraSpecialInfo Name="USI2" Detail="Blah Blahs" TimeStamp="hh:mm:ss" />
      <UltraSpecialInfo Name="USI3" Detail="And More Blahs" TimeStamp="hh:mm:ss" />
   </UltraSpecialEvent>
   <UltraSpecialEvent Name= "UnusedGarbageStuff't">
      <UltraSpecialInfo Name="USI1" Detail="Blah" TimeStamp="hh:mm:ss" />
      <UltraSpecialInfo Name="USI2" Detail="Blah Blahs" TimeStamp="hh:mm:ss" />
      <UltraSpecialInfo Name="USI3" Detail="And More Blahs" TimeStamp="hh:mm:ss" />
   </UltraSpecialEvent>
</UltraSpecialEvents>

Reading The XML

public ArrayList<ArrayList<String>> get() {
            ArrayList<ArrayList<String>> classes = new ArrayList<ArrayList<String>>();
            try {
                boolean inTargetedTag = false;
                XmlPullParser parser = XmlPullParserFactory.newInstance().newPullParser();
                parser.setInput(inputStream, null);
                int eventType = parser.getEventType();
                while (eventType != XmlPullParser.END_DOCUMENT) {
                    switch (eventType) {
                    case XmlPullParser.START_TAG:
                        String tagName = parser.getName();
                        if (tagName.equalsIgnoreCase("UltraSpecialEvent")) {
                            if (parser.getAttributeValue(null, "Name").equals("USE1")) {
                                inTargetedTag = true;
                            } else {
                                inTargetedTag = false;
                            }
                        } if (tagName.equalsIgnoreCase("UltraSpecialInfo")) {
                            if (inTargetedTag) {
                                ArrayList<String> single_Info = new ArrayList<String>();
                                single_Info.add(parser.getAttributeValue(null, "Name"));
                                single_Info.add(parser.getAttributeValue(null, "Detail"));
                                single_Info.add(parser.getAttributeValue(null, "TimeStamp"));
                                bundled_Info.add(single_Info);
                            }
                        }
                        break;
                    }
                    eventType = parser.next();
                }
            } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
            } catch (IOException e) {
            } catch (Exception e) {
            }
            return bundled_Info;
        }

I hope this helps :/