XML Processing

Documentation Contents

The Java^TM API for XML processing includes the basic facilities for working with XML documents through the following standardized set of Java Platform APIs.

Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2

The Document Object Model (DOM) is a set of interfaces defined by the W3C DOM Working Group. It describes facilities for a programmatic representation of a parsed XML (or HTML) document. The DOM Level 2 specification defines these interfaces using Interface Definition Language (IDL) in a language independent fashion and also includes a Java Language binding.

The Java^TM API for XML processing specification includes by reference both the abstract semantics described for the DOM Level 2 Core Recommendation interfaces and the associated Java Language binding. It does not include the optional extensions defined by the DOM working group.

The API package included by the Java^TM API for XML processing specification is:

• org.w3c.dom, which is a part of the Common DOM API.

Simple API For XML Parsing (SAX) 2.0

The Simple API for XML (SAX) is a public domain API developed cooperatively by the members of the XML-DEV mailing list. It provides an event-driven interface to the process of parsing an XML document.

An event driven interface provides a mechanism for "callback" notifications to application’s code as the underlying parser recognizes XML syntactic constructions in the document.

The Java^TM API for XML processing specification includes by reference the SAX 2.0 API and the SAX2 extensions in its entirety.

The API packages included by reference are:

• org.xml.sax
• org.xml.sax.helpers
• org.xml.sax.ext

XSLT 1.0

The XSL Transformations (XSLT) describes a language for transforming XML documents into other XML documents or other text output. It was defined by the W3C XSL Working group.

The XSLT 1.0 Recommendation is located at:

http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-xslt-19991116

The Java^TM API for XML processing specification includes by reference the XSLT 1.0 specification in its entirety.

The API packages included by reference are:

• javax.xml.transform

Pluggability Layer

The endorsed APIs provide broad and useful functionality. However, the use of a SAX or a DOM parser typically requires knowledge of the specific implementation of the parser. Providing the functionality of the endorsed APIs in the Java Platform, while allowing choice of the implementation of the parser, requires a Pluggability layer.

The Java^TM API for XML processing specification defines a Pluggability mechanism to allow a compliant SAX or DOM parser to be used through the abstract javax.xml.parsers and javax.xml.transform API. Also, compliant Transformers are pluggable via the javax.xml.transform API.

Located on the Java Software website:

• Java^TM Technology & XML Home Page