CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaxmlfilepath
mohsaied
mohsaied

Reputation: 2126

Absolute path with XML parser in java

I have the following code to open up an XML file for parsing. My problem is with the variable designPath: it currently has to be a relative path from my program's root directory. However, when I pass an absolute path it doesn't work.

// Get the DOM Builder Factory
DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();

// Get the DOM Builder
DocumentBuilder builder = factory.newDocumentBuilder();

// Load and Parse the XML document
// document contains the complete XML as a Tree
Document document = builder.parse(ClassLoader.getSystemResourceAsStream(designPath));

How can I make this work with either an absolute or relative path in the designPath variable?

The issue is with the function ClassLoader.getSystemResourceAsStream that takes a "resource of the specified name from the search path used to load classes." according to Java docs but I want to be able to use it with an absolute path.

Note that my designPath may be on a different drive than my program.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 2649

Answers (2)

barbiepylon
barbiepylon

Reputation: 911

Pass in an InputStream instead:

// Get the DOM Builder Factory
DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();

// Get the DOM Builder
DocumentBuilder builder = factory.newDocumentBuilder();

// Load and Parse the XML document
// document contains the complete XML as a Tree
File file = new File(PATH_TO_FILE);
InputStream inputStream = new FileInputStream(file);

Document document = builder.parse(inputStream);

or simple pass a new File object

// Get the DOM Builder Factory
DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();

// Get the DOM Builder
DocumentBuilder builder = factory.newDocumentBuilder();

// Load and Parse the XML document
// document contains the complete XML as a Tree
Document document = builder.parse(new File(PATH_TO_FILE));

Upvotes: 1

Sanj
Sanj

Reputation: 850

Well you can't because as you mentioned, getSystemResourceAsStream only searches the classpath.

You may have to so something like this. 

Document document = null;
if (ClassLoader.getSystemResource(designPath) != null)
{
    document = builder.parse(ClassLoader.getSystemResourceAsStream(designPath));
}
else
{
    // use standard file loader
    document = builder.parse(new File(designPath));
}

Swap the if clauses around if you want the file on the file system to take precedence.

Upvotes: 0

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