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reading an xml file

How would I read the below MyApp.xml file, and display all the names on a web page?

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<MyApp>
<Names>
<Name>John Doe</Name>
<Name>Paul Smith</Name>
<Name>Jane Doe</Name>
<Name>Mary Smith</Name>
</Names>
</MyApp>

boonleng

The are several ways to read the XML file, you can use the JSTL tag such as the following example in th jsp:

<%@ taglib uri='http://java.sun.com/jstl/core' prefix='c' %>
<%@ taglib uri='http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml' prefix='x' %>

<%-- Import XML file --%>
<c:import var='myapp_xml' url='MyApp.xml'/>

<%-- Parse XML file --%>
<x:parse var='document' xml='${myapp_xml}'/>

<x:forEach select='$document//Names'>
<x:out select='Name'/>
</x:forEach>

or use dom4j (http://www.dom4j.org/) or Xerces (http://xml.apache.org/xerces-j/) to parse the xml file, or use XSLT to read and format the xml to html.

Regards,
Boon Leng

arichexe

ASKER

I'm getting the error: "org.apache.jasper.JasperException: MyApp.jsp(8,0) According to TLD or attribute directive in tag file, attribute xml does not accept any expressions." What could be causing this?

arichexe

ASKER

I got it to work, somewhat, but had to change the tag lib URL; however, all that's displaying is the first name, "John Doe." Is there something wrong with the forEach logic?

<%@ taglib prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" %>
<%@ taglib prefix="x" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/xml" %>

<%-- Import XML file --%>
<c:import var='myapp_xml' url='MyApp.xml'/>

<%-- Parse XML file --%>
<x:parse var='document' xml='${myapp_xml}'/>

<x:forEach select='$document//Names'>
<x:out select='Name'/>
</x:forEach>

boonleng

Sorry for the late reply, my line down for the entire day :(
And sorry for some of the mistakes on the code posted previously, I wrote it without testing it :p
The following should be working, let me know if you still have problem with it :)

<%@ taglib prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" %>
<%@ taglib prefix="x" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/xml" %>

<%-- Import XML file --%>
<c:import var='myapp_xml' url='MyApp.xml'/>

<%-- Parse XML file --%>
<x:parse var='document' xml='${myapp_xml}'/>

<x:forEach select='$document//Name'>
<x:out select='text()'/>
</x:forEach>

arichexe

ASKER

Works now, thanks; however, say I wanted save the names to a variable, so I could do some scripting, i.e.,
<% if (Name == 'John Doe') {some operation} %>.

boonleng

You can try the following codes:

<x:forEach select='$document//Name'>
<x:if select='text() = "John Doe"'>
<c:set var="name"><x:out select='text()'/></c:set>
</x:if>
</x:forEach>
<c:out value="${name}"/>

arichexe

ASKER

Works great, but what if I want to do more than just display the ${name} var; like get a substring of it via a JSP script?

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boonleng

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arichexe

ASKER

Works great! Thanks for your help.