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Chapter: XML and Web Services : Building XML-Based Applications : Parsing XML Using Document Object Model

Why Do I Need DOM?

The main reason for using DOM is to create or modify an XML document programmatically.

Why Do I Need DOM?

 

The main reason for using DOM is to create or modify an XML document programmatically. You can use DOM just to read an XML document, but as you will see in the next chapter, SAX is often a better candidate for the read-only case. If you want to create a document, you start by creating a root element and then add attributes, content, sub-ele-ments, and so on. Once you are finished, you can write the document out to disk or send it over a network. The output looks just like an XML document prepared in a text editor or XML tool.

 

If you want to modify an existing XML document, you can read it in from a file or other I/O source. The entire document is read into memory all at once, so you can change any part of it at any time. The representation in memory is a tree structure that starts with a root element that contains attributes, content, and sub-elements. You can traverse this tree, search for a specific node, and change its attributes or data. You can also add attrib-utes or elements anywhere in the tree, as long as you don’t violate the rules of a well-formed document. Again, you can write the modified document back out to disk or to the network.

 

It is possible to process XML documents using other, simpler techniques, such XSLT. The problem is that XSLT is not always expressive enough to solve complex problems. For example, let’s say you want to search for elements described by another element, in the case of a master/detail relationship. This is difficult if not impossible to accomplish with XSLT.

 

Learning to use DOM saves you considerable time by leveraging existing parsers. Additionally, a standard interface makes it easy to change parsers in the event that an improved implementation becomes available.


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XML and Web Services : Building XML-Based Applications : Parsing XML Using Document Object Model : Why Do I Need DOM? |


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