Parsing attribute in XML with DOM parser

Question

I am currently parsing XML, but im not quite sure how to parse the "status" attribute of "message":

<message status="test"> <text>sometext</text> <msisdn>stuff</msisdn> </message>

Here is the code, i have cut off everything unnecessary:

NodeList nodeLst = doc.getElementsByTagName("message");

for (int s = 0; s < nodeLst.getLength(); s++) {

       Node fstNode = nodeLst.item(s);

       if (fstNode.getNodeType() == Node.ELEMENT_NODE) {

               Element fstElmnt = (Element) fstNode;

               NodeList numberNmElmntLst = fstElmnt
               .getElementsByTagName("msisdn");
               Element numberNmElmnt = (Element) numberNmElmntLst.item(0);
               NodeList numberNm = numberNmElmnt.getChildNodes();
               String phoneNumber = ((Node) numberNm.item(0))
               .getNodeValue().substring(2);

               NodeList txtNmElmntLst = fstElmnt
               .getElementsByTagName("text");
               Element txtNmElmnt = (Element) txtNmElmntLst.item(0);
               NodeList txtNm = txtNmElmnt.getChildNodes();
               String text = ((Node) txtNm.item(0)).getNodeValue();

               NodeList rcvNmElmntLst = fstElmnt
               .getElementsByTagName("received");
               Element rcvNmElmnt = (Element) rcvNmElmntLst.item(0);
               NodeList rcvNm = rcvNmElmnt.getChildNodes();
               String recievedDate = ((Node) rcvNm.item(0)).getNodeValue();
            }
}

Can anyone guide me how this is done?

Thanks in advance.

Aravind Yarram · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-03T18:44:06.667

12

Node.getAttributes()

NamedNodeMap attributes = fstElmnt.getAttributes();

for (int a = 0; a < attributes.getLength(); a++) 
{
        Node theAttribute = attributes.item(a);
        System.out.println(theAttribute.getNodeName() + "=" + theAttribute.getNodeValue());
}

You could avoid traversing if you use XPATH to retrieve the data. Read this tutorial.

edited Feb 03 '12 at 18:44

answered Feb 03 '12 at 17:27

Aravind Yarram

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Thanks for your reply, can you explain the attribute aNode? – JavaCake Feb 03 '12 at 17:58
@JavaCake aNode refers to the node for which you want to retrieve the attribute. In your case it is the Node referring to "message" element. – Aravind Yarram Feb 03 '12 at 18:01
do you mind giving implementation example based on my code? I cant exactly determine how its done. – JavaCake Feb 03 '12 at 18:13
@JavaCake i edited my code. I assume "message" is the root element of your xml. if it is then it will work. try it and let me know. You can get the root element using doc.getDocumentElement() in DOM – Aravind Yarram Feb 03 '12 at 18:25
@JavaCake i just realized "message" is not root element. you need to call that method on fstElmnt. i edited my code – Aravind Yarram Feb 03 '12 at 18:33
It was easier than i thought. Thanks alot! – JavaCake Feb 03 '12 at 18:42
@JavaCake see my updated post, u could use xpath. also accept this as the answer if I answered ur question – Aravind Yarram Feb 03 '12 at 18:44
`Node statusItem = attributes.getNamedItem("status");` did the trick. – JavaCake Feb 03 '12 at 18:46

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 03 '12 at 17:33

2

I have been playing with Apache Xerces for parsing DOM. But it was horrible tasks. If you could, take a look at jsoup.

So, if your question has an answer in Jsoup, it would be:

node.attr("status")

answered Feb 03 '12 at 17:33

I regret i did not do that, but unfortunately i cannot change much now, the application is very big. – JavaCake Feb 03 '12 at 17:50

Parsing attribute in XML with DOM parser

2 Answers2

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