Java and XML

Chapter 2. Creating XML

Now that you have a greater understanding of XML, how it can be used, and some of the Java APIs available, it’s time to turn concepts into practice. Although this book is not by any means a definitive guide to XML syntax, or even an XML reference, it would be impossible to discuss how to parse and manipulate XML documents without first being able to create those documents. In addition, the Java APIs for handling XML all assume a fair amount of familiarity with XML syntax and structure, as well as with the design patterns that go into creating an XML document, constraining it, and transforming it. Therefore we look at each of these tasks before discussing the corresponding Java APIs.

To begin, we will take a closer look at XML syntax in this chapter. Starting with the very basic XML constructs, we will discuss what a well-formed XML document is and how to create one. The various XML rules and syntactical “gotchas” will be covered to help you build XML documents that are not only legal, but can be used in realistic applications. All this work will set the stage for writing our first Java program in the next chapter to understand how parsing XML works, and how Java provides callbacks into the parsing process.

If you have ever read a chapter or even a book on a programming language’s syntax, you probably realize it is usually pretty dry reading. To try and avoid this, we will look at syntax in a bit of a different light than you may be used to. Rather than starting ...