Today I introduce the easiest way to read and write to XML files using Java. It is call the JDOM2 library. With it you’ll easily read any element, or attribute and create your own.
I introduce 10 libraries and show you numerous methods that will make your life easier in just 14 minutes!
All of the code follows the video to improve the learning process.
I received a bunch of emails asking me to make a tutorial on Java XPath. I guess you liked my previous XML XPath tutorial?
XPath can be used to easily grab data from an XML file and into your Java code. I’ll cover how to write to an XML file the easy way in my next tutorial on JDOM2.
All of the code follows the video, and it is heavily commented to help you learn.
After I made my XML Video Tutorial, you asked me to show you how to parse XML with Java. So, that is what I’m doing in this tutorial.
I wasn’t sure how much to cover, because I could literally create a 5 part series on this topic. I decided to cover the basics in the video and provide another example in the code below.
If you want to see more, tell me and I’ll cover more on parsing XML with Java.
Here I end my XML Video tutorial by covering complex types, sequence, groups, and a ton more! I also show you how to design schemas and XML files using the Eclipse design tools.
If you missed the past tutorials, here they are based on topic: XML Video Tutorial, XSL Video Tutorial, XPATH Video Tutorial, DTD Video Tutorial, Entity Video Tutorial and part 1 of my Schema Tutorial.
All of the code from the video and more follow the video.
In part 1 of my XML Schema video tutorial I introduce you to XML schema files. This of course is a continuation of my XML Video Tutorial.
I talk about schemas, namespaces, the different data types available, how to restrict the data, enumerations and much more.
I thought it would be best to break up this sometimes confusing subject. Use the code below to better understand what I’m doing.
In this part of my XML video tutorial, I will cover how to use an entity. I’ll also show you how to combine XML, DTD and XSL files.
You can use an entity to create shortcuts in your DTD files. You create personal codes like those built into XML like < is replaced with <.
Through using these codes you’ll be able to pull data either from within the DTD file, or from external files. All of the code follows the video.
In this part of my XML Video Tutorial, I cover Document Type Definitions (DTD). DTDs are used to define the markup for your XML files.
We use DTD files to make sure data is valid and so multiple people can work together in a standardized way.
It sounds really complicated, but you are just defining what elements are required in the XML file and what type of data each element must have. The code after the video will help you learn.
This is a massive tutorial! It could be called a xpath tutorial / xml Template tutorial / XSL Video Tutorial. I cover all of those topics and a whole bunch more.
I’ve also spent a bunch of time looking for common questions about XML and have included those answers in this XML Video Tutorial.
If you missed part 1 of my XML Video Tutorial, check it out first. All of the code follows the video and it’s heavily commented to help you learn XML.
In part 1 of my XML Video Tutorial, I covered the basics of creating an XML file in Eclipse. In this tutorial, I teach you how to use eXtensible Style Language (XSL).
I can’t even briefly cover everything in this tutorial. Suffice to say, I show you how to do just about anything you’d ever want to do with XSL. At least I covered everything I could fit in a 15 minute video.
Use the code below to help you better understand XSL.
I recently asked what tutorial you’d like to see next. The most popular request was for a new XML Video Tutorial. So, since I can make this pretty quickly I decided to cover XML now.
When you start learning XML it seems very simple. That however changes very quickly. In the next few tutorials, I’ll do my best to make learning XML much easier.
The code that follows the video will help you learn.
Here I present a video version of my XML Tutorial. I went out of my way to cover nearly all of the capabilities provided to you with XML. If you have any questions or want further information, leave a comment below.
Learn XML Video Tutorial Part 1
Here I introduce XML by covering:
In this article I’ll describe the most complicated aspect in XML. A XML Schema is another way you can represent how a XML document file defines data, elements and attributes.
How Schema’s Differ from DTD’s
Unlike DTD’s, which are great when you are mainly working with text elements, Schema’s work best when your mainly working with data elements.
Schema’s also work better when you want to be certain that the proper data is entered. Schema’s define what type of data each element and attribute can hold. For example, with a XML Schema you can specify you will only allow a price element to be of the form of a certain number of numbers followed by a period and then two additional digits. Continue reading Learn XML Schema
As I explained at the end of the last article. You create a Document Type to define the rules that must be followed in your XML Markup. A DTD defines what elements are required and what attributes can be set and what their potential values can be.
Every DTD must start with the line <?xml version=”1.0” encoding=”UTF-8” standalone=”no”?>. This tells the processor that this is an XML version 1.0 file. The character encoding used is of type UTF-8. And, that no external file is required for this document to work.
Also make sure that when you are creating DTD’s that !ELEMENT, !ATTLIST, #REQUIRED, #PCDATA, #CDATA, etc. are all capitalized.
There you are all up to speed. Now on to DTD Prologs… Continue reading Learn XML Document Type Definition’s
In this tutorial I’ll continue to cover XML and all of it’s capabilities. XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language. I hope you got this one point from the last XML Article. XML does one thing really well. It organizes and classifies your data, so that it is useable by a wide range of devices and software packages!
In this article I’ll explain how XML influenced HTML, to create the newest version of HTML called XHTML. I’ll then explain what well formed XML is and Document Type Definition’s (DTD).
In the next set of tutorials, I’ll completely cover XML and all of it’s capabilities. XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language. I’ll get back to the extensible part in a minute.
First you have to understand that XML is no more a programming language than HTML is. Let me repeat that. XML is not a programming language, it is a Markup Language that is very similar to HTML. If you don’t understand HTML, stop reading this article and instead read or watch my HTML W3C Tutorial.
People really struggle to understand exactly what XML is and I’m going to explain it in an unconventional way that has never failed in the past. I’ll explain XML, by comparing it to HTML. Continue reading Learn XML eXtensible Markup Language