DOM provides many handy classes to create XML file easily. Firstly, you have to create a Document with DocumentBuilder class, define all the XML content – node, attribute with Element class. In last, use Transformer class to output the entire XML content to stream output, typically a File.

In this tutorial, we show you how to use DOM XML parser to create a XML file.

DOM Parser Example

At the end of the example, following XML file named “file.xml” will be created.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no" ?> 
<company>
	<staff id="1">
		<firstname>yong</firstname>
		<lastname>mook kim</lastname>
		<nickname>mkyong</nickname>
		<salary>100000</salary>
	</staff>
</company>

File : WriteXMLFile.java – Java class to create a XML file.

package com.mkyong.core;
 
import java.io.File;
import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder;
import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory;
import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
import javax.xml.transform.Transformer;
import javax.xml.transform.TransformerException;
import javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory;
import javax.xml.transform.dom.DOMSource;
import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamResult;
 
import org.w3c.dom.Attr;
import org.w3c.dom.Document;
import org.w3c.dom.Element;
 
public class WriteXMLFile {
 
	public static void main(String argv[]) {
 
	  try {
 
		DocumentBuilderFactory docFactory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
		DocumentBuilder docBuilder = docFactory.newDocumentBuilder();
 
		// root elements
		Document doc = docBuilder.newDocument();
		Element rootElement = doc.createElement("company");
		doc.appendChild(rootElement);
 
		// staff elements
		Element staff = doc.createElement("Staff");
		rootElement.appendChild(staff);
 
		// set attribute to staff element
		Attr attr = doc.createAttribute("id");
		attr.setValue("1");
		staff.setAttributeNode(attr);
 
		// shorten way
		// staff.setAttribute("id", "1");
 
		// firstname elements
		Element firstname = doc.createElement("firstname");
		firstname.appendChild(doc.createTextNode("yong"));
		staff.appendChild(firstname);
 
		// lastname elements
		Element lastname = doc.createElement("lastname");
		lastname.appendChild(doc.createTextNode("mook kim"));
		staff.appendChild(lastname);
 
		// nickname elements
		Element nickname = doc.createElement("nickname");
		nickname.appendChild(doc.createTextNode("mkyong"));
		staff.appendChild(nickname);
 
		// salary elements
		Element salary = doc.createElement("salary");
		salary.appendChild(doc.createTextNode("100000"));
		staff.appendChild(salary);
 
		// write the content into xml file
		TransformerFactory transformerFactory = TransformerFactory.newInstance();
		Transformer transformer = transformerFactory.newTransformer();
		DOMSource source = new DOMSource(doc);
		StreamResult result = new StreamResult(new File("C:\\file.xml"));
 
		// Output to console for testing
		// StreamResult result = new StreamResult(System.out);
 
		transformer.transform(source, result);
 
		System.out.println("File saved!");
 
	  } catch (ParserConfigurationException pce) {
		pce.printStackTrace();
	  } catch (TransformerException tfe) {
		tfe.printStackTrace();
	  }
	}
}

A new XML file is created in “C:\\file.xml“, with default UTF-8 encoded.

Note
For debugging, you can change the StreamResult to output the XML content to your console.

StreamResult result =  new StreamResult(System.out);
transformer.transform(source, result);
Tags :
Founder of Mkyong.com, love Java and open source stuffs. Follow him on Twitter, or befriend him on Facebook or Google Plus.
Here are some of my recommended Books

Related Posts

Popular Posts