Simple API for XML(SAX) is an event driven parser which reads XML step by step. SAX Parser is faster and uses less memory than DOM parser.
Event handling methods used: startElement() – Receive notification of the start of an element. endElement() – Receive notification of the end of an element. characters() – Receive notification of character data inside an element.
XML document to be parsed movie_list.xml
<movies>
<movie>
<name>The Terminal</name>
<image>http://.../the_terminal.jpg</image>
<description>terminal foo foo foo</description>
</movie>
<movie>
<name>Shutter Island</name>
<image>http://.../shutter_island.png</image>
<description>shutter foo foo foo </description>
</movie>
<movie>
<name>Old Boy</name>
<image>http://.../old_boy.gif</image>
<description>old foo foo foo </description>
</movie>
</movies>Create Model object Movie.java
public class Movie {
public String getName() {
return name;
}
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
public String getImgURL() {
return imgURL;
}
public void setImgURL(String imgURL) {
this.imgURL = imgURL;
}
public String getDescription() {
return description;
}
public void setDescription(String description) {
this.description = description;
}
private String name;
private String imgURL;
private String description;
@Override
public String toString() {
return this.name + " " + this.imgURL + " " + this.description;
}
}Extend DefaultHandler and override above mentioned event handling methods. MovieHandler.java
public class MovieHandler extends DefaultHandler {
List<Movie> movieList = new ArrayList<Movie>();
Movie movie = null;
String data = null;
@Override
public void startElement(String uri, String localName, String qName,
Attributes attributes) throws SAXException {
// When start tag of 'movie' element found, create an object and add it to the list
switch (qName) {
case "movie":
movie = new Movie();
movieList.add(movie);
break;
}
}
@Override
public void endElement(String uri, String localName, String qName)
throws SAXException {
switch (qName) {
case "name":
movie.setName(data);
break;
case "description":
movie.setDescription(data);
break;
case "image":
movie.setImgURL(data);
break;
}
}
@Override
public void characters(char[] ch, int start, int length)
throws SAXException {
data = String.copyValueOf(ch, start, length).trim();
}
}Set up the parser and get it started MovieSaxParser.java
public class MovieSaxParser {
static final Logger LOG = Logger.getLogger(MovieSaxParser.class);
String static fileLocation = "/home/prnv/movie_list.xml";
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
SAXParserFactory saxFactory = SAXParserFactory.newInstance();
SAXParser parser = saxFactory.newSAXParser();
MovieHandler handler = new MovieHandler();
parser.parse(fileLocation, handler);
for (Movie movie : handler.movieList) {
System.out.println(movie);
}
} catch (ParserConfigurationException | SAXException | IOException e) {
LOG.error("Exception ", e);
}
}
}