Real World XML

Modifying XML Documents

In the previous chapter, we saw that the Java DOM parser has several methods, such as insertBefore and addChild, that let you modify a document in memory. SAX parsers don't give you access to the whole document tree at once, so no similar methods exist here.

However, you can “modify” the structure of a document when using a SAX parser simply by calling various callback methods yourself. For example, you can modify ch12_01.xml to create ch12_11.xml, adding a <MIDDLE_NAME> element with the text "XML" to each <PERSON> element in addition to the <FIRST_NAME> and <LAST_NAME> elements. It's easy enough to do the same here using SAX methods. All I have to do is to wait for a <FIST_NAME> element and then “create” a new element ...