Parsing string of xml android

Question

I'm having a little trouble parsing a string of xml called responseText in android. The xml is fully valid and has the following structure:

<plan>
<entry>
<name>john</name>
<address>uk</address>
</entry>
<entry>
<name>joe</name>
<address>usa</address>
</entry>
</plan>

The code I am using to parse the String is as follows:

    try {
        DocumentBuilderFactory dbf = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
        DocumentBuilder db = dbf.newDocumentBuilder();
        InputSource is = new InputSource();

        is.setCharacterStream(new StringReader(responseText));

        Document doc = db.parse(is);
        NodeList nodes = doc.getElementsByTagName("entry");

        for (int i = 0; i < nodes.getLength(); i++) {

            Element element = (Element) nodes.item(i);

            NodeList name = ((Document) element)
                    .getElementsByTagName("name");
            Element line = (Element) name.item(0);
            Toast.makeText(Containers.this,
                    getCharacterDataFromElement(line), Toast.LENGTH_SHORT)
                    .show();

            NodeList title = ((Document) element)
                    .getElementsByTagName("address");
            line = (Element) title.item(0);
            Toast.makeText(Containers.this,
                    getCharacterDataFromElement(line), Toast.LENGTH_SHORT)
                    .show();

        }
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

public static String getCharacterDataFromElement(Element e) {
    Node child = ((Node) e).getFirstChild();
    if (child instanceof CharacterData) {
        CharacterData cd = (CharacterData) child;
        return cd.getData();
    }
    return "?";

}

I'm just using simple toasts to print the xml data to screen. However, i get an IOexception when I enter the for loop. Any idea what is wrong?

How do I get the full text? It may not actually be an Ioexception - I do know however that it enters an exception, I was just looking at the logcat thing and the ioexception may have been to do with an error on my phone. Where does the stacktrace print to? Or how would I enable it? — Nicklas J.G Olsen
– Nicklas J.G Olsen, Commented Feb 2, 2011 at 21:47
To help you with the error, the full text of the exception would be nice. Anyway, you should use this for parsing XML: androidpeople.com/android-xml-parsing-tutorial-using-saxparser — gnclmorais
– gnclmorais, Commented Feb 2, 2011 at 21:51

JLund · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-02 22:05:01Z

8

Are you importing the types from the correct packages? Something like

import java.io.StringReader;

import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder;
import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory;

import org.w3c.dom.CharacterData;
import org.w3c.dom.Document;
import org.w3c.dom.Node;
import org.w3c.dom.NodeList;
import org.xml.sax.InputSource;

import android.sax.Element; // Wrong Element class

Change the last import to

import org.w3c.dom.Element;

and try again.

edited Feb 2, 2011 at 22:05

answered Feb 2, 2011 at 21:57

JLund

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2 Comments

Nicklas J.G Olsen Over a year ago

This was the exact problem - the wrong import. No idea how I managed that! Thanks.

Shark Over a year ago

wow! Eclipse auto-imports can be REALLY dum at times... thanks a ton.. had the exact same problem

Matti Virkkunen · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-02 21:47:17Z

1

I don't see anything that could cause an IOException inside the loop.

However, are you sure you can just go and cast an Element into a Document? At any rate you shouldn't need to anyways, since Element also has the getElementsByTagName method.

answered Feb 2, 2011 at 21:47

Matti Virkkunen

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9 Comments

Nicklas J.G Olsen Over a year ago

If I don't cast it eclipse underlines it as an error, not sure why.

Matti Virkkunen Over a year ago

@Nicklas: But what does the actual compiler say...?

Nicklas J.G Olsen Over a year ago

@Matti Virkkunen The method getElementsByTagName(String) is undefined for the type Element

Matti Virkkunen Over a year ago

@Nicklas: Let me just confirm, we are talking about this class, right?

Dan Breslau Over a year ago

@Nicklas: You can't fix the problem by using a cast to Document, unless the node actually is a Document. And your element is not a Document. This may or may not be the cause for the exception that you're seeing, but it is the cause of an exception, whether or not you've gotten there yet.

|

Ted Hopp · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-02 21:54:06Z

0

Try adding an xml declaration at the start of your string.

answered Feb 2, 2011 at 21:54

Ted Hopp

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