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RE: Best way to create an XML document

• From: "Michael Kay" <mike@s...>
• To: "'Mukul Gandhi'" <gandhi.mukul@g...>,"'Michael Glavassevich'" <mrglavas@c...>
• Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 20:23:03 +0100

> I have following follow-up questions, and would appreciate 
> clearing my doubts:
> 
> 1) Is it possible to pretty print the output?

Try transformerHandler.getTransformer().setOutputProperty(OutputKeys.INDENT,
"yes")

> 2) Is this approach faster than using DOM serialization?

Well, it should be, because it doesn't involve building a tree in memory.
But the only way to find out is to measure it.

> 3) Here I am using the transformer functionality for creating 
> XML, which looks more like a XSLT feature (i.e., transformation task).
> Should we not have this capability in the XML parser (for 
> e.g., in Xerces)? Should we have something like xml-writer 
> (which Rob pointed) built into Xerces (possibly as an enhancement)?

It's hard to change history. XSLT processors include a serializer because
it's defined in the XSLT specification, and since they have one, it makes
sense to expose it even if you aren't doing a transformation. There's no
particular reason why a product whose primary purpose is XML parsing should
also include a serializer.
> 
> At the end of all this, it struck to me, I should try 
> violating the well-formedness constraint of XML and see what 
> happens. And to my surprise, this technique also suffers from 
> the same problem I mentioned with xml-writer. Why does the 
> implementation doesn't ensure this?

Because the spec doesn't say it has to. And because XSLT serializers were
primarily written to get their input from XSLT transformers, which they
trust; so why incur the extra expense?

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/

• References:
  • Re: Best way to create an XML document
    • From: "Mukul Gandhi" <gandhi.mukul@g...>
  • Re: Best way to create an XML document
    • From: Michael Glavassevich <mrglavas@c...>
  • Re: Best way to create an XML document
    • From: "Mukul Gandhi" <gandhi.mukul@g...>