XML Pasring in Android

Files Used:-
XMLParsingExample.java ( Main Activity )
SitesList.java ( Getter & Setter Method )
MyXMLHandler.java ( XML Handling )
example.xml ( XML file from net )

The output will looks similar to

example.xml ( http://www.androidpeople.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/example.xml )

[sourcecode language="xml"]

<maintag>

<item>

<name>AndroidPeople</name>

<website category="android">www.androidpeople.com</website>

</item>

<item>

<name>iPhoneAppDeveloper</name>

<website category="iPhone">www.iphone-app-developer.com</website>

</item>

</maintag>

[/sourcecode]

If tag names are different, then we can use string to set & get the value. But here item,name & website tags are repeating 2 times.

So we can use ArrayList to store & get the data.

XMLParsingExample.java

This is main activity class. when App. starts this file will be called first.

This file contains how to use SAX Parser to handle XML tags.

[sourcecode language="java"]

package com.androidpeople.xml.parsing;
import java.net.URL;
import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParser;
import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory;
import org.xml.sax.InputSource;
import org.xml.sax.XMLReader;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.widget.LinearLayout;
import android.widget.TextView;
public class XMLParsingExample extends Activity
{
    /** Create Object For SiteList Class */
    SitesList sitesList = null;
    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
    {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
        /** Create a new layout to display the view */
        LinearLayout layout = new LinearLayout(this);
        layout.setOrientation(1);
        /** Create a new textview array to display the results */
        TextView name[];
        TextView website[];
        TextView category[];
        try
        {
            /** Handling XML */
            SAXParserFactory spf = SAXParserFactory.newInstance();
            SAXParser sp = spf.newSAXParser();
            XMLReader xr = sp.getXMLReader();
            /** Send URL to parse XML Tags */
            URL sourceUrl = new URL(
                "http://www.androidpeople.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/example.xml");
            /** Create handler to handle XML Tags ( extends DefaultHandler ) */
            MyXMLHandler myXMLHandler = new MyXMLHandler();
            xr.setContentHandler(myXMLHandler);
            xr.parse(new InputSource(sourceUrl.openStream()));
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            System.out.println("XML Pasing Excpetion = " + e);
        }
        /** Get result from MyXMLHandler SitlesList Object */
        sitesList = MyXMLHandler.sitesList;
        /** Assign textview array lenght by arraylist size */
        name = new TextView[sitesList.getName().size()];
        website = new TextView[sitesList.getName().size()];
        category = new TextView[sitesList.getName().size()];
        /** Set the result text in textview and add it to layout */
        for (int i = 0; i < sitesList.getName().size(); i++)
        {
            name[i] = new TextView(this);
            name[i].setText("Name = "+sitesList.getName().get(i));
            website[i] = new TextView(this);
            website[i].setText("Website = "+sitesList.getWebsite().get(i));
            category[i] = new TextView(this);
            category[i].setText("Website Category = "+sitesList.getCategory().get(i));
            layout.addView(name[i]);
            layout.addView(website[i]);
            layout.addView(category[i]);
        }
        /** Set the layout view to display */
        setContentView(layout);
    }
}

[/sourcecode]

MyXMLHandler.java

This file is used to handle the XML tags. So we need to extends with DefaultHandler.

we need to override startElement, endElement & characters method .

startElemnt method called when the tag starts.

endElemnt method called when the tag ends

characres method to get characters inside tag.

[sourcecode language="java"]

package com.androidpeople.xml.parsing;
import org.xml.sax.Attributes;
import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
import org.xml.sax.helpers.DefaultHandler;
public class MyXMLHandler extends DefaultHandler
{
    Boolean currentElement = false;
    String currentValue = null;
    public static SitesList sitesList = null;
    public static SitesList getSitesList()
    {
        return sitesList;
    }
    public static void setSitesList(SitesList sitesList)
    {
        MyXMLHandler.sitesList = sitesList;
    }
    /** Called when tag starts ( ex:- <name>AndroidPeople</name>
    * -- <name> )*/
    @Override
    public void startElement(String uri, String localName, String qName,
                             Attributes attributes) throws SAXException
    {
        currentElement = true;
        if (localName.equals("maintag"))
        {
            /** Start */
            sitesList = new SitesList();
        }
        else if (localName.equals("website"))
        {
            /** Get attribute value */
            String attr = attributes.getValue("category");
            sitesList.setCategory(attr);
        }
    }
    /** Called when tag closing ( ex:- <name>AndroidPeople</name>
    * -- </name> )*/
    @Override
    public void endElement(String uri, String localName, String qName)
    throws SAXException
    {
        currentElement = false;
        /** set value */
        if (localName.equalsIgnoreCase("name"))
            sitesList.setName(currentValue);
        else if (localName.equalsIgnoreCase("website"))
            sitesList.setWebsite(currentValue);
    }
    /** Called to get tag characters ( ex:- <name>AndroidPeople</name>
    * -- to get AndroidPeople Character ) */
    @Override
    public void characters(char[] ch, int start, int length)
    throws SAXException
    {
        if (currentElement)
        {
            currentValue = new String(ch, start, length);
            currentElement = false;
        }
    }
}
[/sourcecode]

SitesList.java

Contains Getter & Setter Method

[sourcecode language="java"]
package com.androidpeople.xml.parsing;
import java.util.ArrayList;
/** Contains getter and setter method for varialbles */
public class SitesList
{
    /** Variables */
    private ArrayList<String> name = new ArrayList<String>();
    private ArrayList<String> website = new ArrayList<String>();
    private ArrayList<String> category = new ArrayList<String>();
    /** In Setter method default it will return arraylist
    * change that to add */
    public ArrayList<String> getName()
    {
        return name;
    }
    public void setName(String name)
    {
        this.name.add(name);
    }
    public ArrayList<String> getWebsite()
    {
        return website;
    }
    public void setWebsite(String website)
    {
        this.website.add(website);
    }
    public ArrayList<String> getCategory()
    {
        return category;
    }
    public void setCategory(String category)
    {
        this.category.add(category);
    }
}