Java Reference
In-Depth Information
and do something with it, but you can't check its validity to make sure that it's organized
correctly according to the rules of its dialect.
TIP
To get an idea of what kind of XML dialects have been created,
Cover Pages offers a list at
http://xml.coverpages.org/
Java supports XML through the Java API for XML Processing, a set of packages for
reading, writing, and manipulating XML data.
The
javax.xml.parsers
package is the entry point to the other packages. These classes
can be used to parse and validate XML data using two techniques: the Simple API for
XML (SAX) and the Document Object Model (DOM). However, they can be difficult to
implement, which has inspired other groups to offer their own class libraries to work
with XML.
You'll spend the remainder of the day working with one of these alternatives: the XML
Object Model (XOM) library, an open source Java class library that makes it extremely
easy to read, write, and transform XML data.
To find out more about the Java API for XML Processing, visit the
company's Java website at
http://java.sun.com/xml.
NOTE
One of the most important skills you can develop as a Java programmer is the ability to
find suitable packages and classes that can be employed in your own projects. For obvi-
ous reasons, making use of a well-designed class library is much easier than developing
one on your own.
Although Sun's Java class library contains thousands of well-designed classes that cover
a comprehensive range of development needs, the company isn't the only supplier of
packages that may prove useful to your efforts.
