Question

To set the scene, I’m currently working on an XML adapter for Android that will read in the XML files I’ve been given and parse them into a database. I thought I had this down until they sprung on me that the nodes in the XML file could change from file to file, and so I need to build in a mechanism to cope with missing variables.

The most obvious solution to this was a switch() statement, but that won’t work with strings, so I started building an if-then-else structure. The idea was that it would check the name of the node and work out what to do with it based on that. Simple, no?

The problem is, I can’t seem to pull the name of the nodes I need from the XML file no matter what I do. The structure of the XML file is below:

<Vehicle>
    <Detail>
        <VIN>BBB2791276393</VIN>
        <RegNo>KN05EAP</RegNo>
        <Doors>5</Doors>
    </Detail>
</Vehicle>

What I need to be able to compare against is tag names like “VIN” or “RegNo”, but I can’t figure out a way to pull them out. ETA: As I didn’t make this clear, the child nodes of Detail change between XML files, and I have to deal with them as they come…

I’m using a DOM parser, and pulling out a NodeList based on <Detail>. NodeList.item(0) gives me the <Detail> node, but if I then try and break that down (with getChildNodes() for example), I can’t get the tag names for <VIN> or <RegNo>. In fact, I can’t seem to get any kind of reference for them that I could use to determine what node it is based on the original name.

Anyone got any ideas?

Answer 1

Ok..as you explained that you can reach up to Detail tag..try doing it this way…

// Getting VIN of Detail
 if (element.getElementsByTagName("VIN").getLength() > 0) {
        childNode = element.getElementsByTagName("VIN").item(0); //Get all the elements one by one
        String VIN = childNode.getFirstChild().getNodeValue();

    }

You can do it for all the children tags of Detail…Hope this will help you..!!!