Cylian / xmodifier

XModifier

This project is just a hobby project, please feel free to copy, change or use it.

The purpose of this project is very simple: Use XPATH to edit XML or create XML

XPATH is used for querying XML, but sometimes you may want use it to edit/create XML:

examples

XPath	Value	Desc
/ns:root/ns:element1		add <ns:element1/>
/ns:root/ns:element2[@attr=1]		add <ns:element2 attr="1"/>
/ns:root/ns:element2/@attr	1	add <ns:element2 attr="1"/>
/ns:root/ns:element1/ns:element11		add <ns:element11/>
/ns:root/ns:element3	TEXT	add <ns:element3>TEXT</ns:element3>
/ns:root/ns:element1[ns:element12]/ns:element13		add <ns:element13/>
//PersonList/Person[2]/Name	NewName	set the second Person node's Name Text
//PersonList/Person[2]/Name/text()	NewName	set the second Person node's Name Text
//PersonList/Person[1]/Name(:delete)		delete this Name node
//PersonList/Person(:add)/Name	NewName	always add a new Person node
//PersonList/Person(:insertBefore(Person[Name='Name2']))/Name	NewName	add a new Person node before Person named "Name2"

Special XModifier mark all special marks are start with (: and end with ) they are not part of standard XPATH, use them only when you have to.

Mark	usage
(:add)	always add new element (by default only add new element when not exist)
(:delete)	delete an element
(:insertBefore(XPATH))	always add new element, and control the position of it, (by default only append to last element)

Code example:

Create new xml:

		Document document = createDocument(); //empty document
		XModifier modifier = new XModifier(document);
		modifier.setNamespace("ns", "http://localhost");
		// create an empty element
		modifier.addModify("/ns:root/ns:element1");
		// create an element with attribute
		modifier.addModify("/ns:root/ns:element2[@attr=1]");
		// append an new element to existing element1
		modifier.addModify("/ns:root/ns:element1/ns:element11");
		// create an element with text
		modifier.addModify("/ns:root/ns:element3", "TEXT");
		modifier.modify();

result xml:

		<root xmlns="http://localhost">
			<element1>
				<element11/>
			</element1>
			<element2 attr="1"/>
			<element3>TEXT</element3>
		</root>

Modify exist xml:

original xml:

		<root xmlns="http://localhost">
			<element1>
				<element11></element11>
			</element1>
			<element1>
				<element12></element12>
			</element1>
			<element2></element2>
			<element3></element3>
		</root>

		Document document = readDocument("modify.xml");
		XModifier modifier = new XModifier(document);
		modifier.setNamespace("ns", "http://localhost");
		modifier.addModify("/ns:root/ns:element1[ns:element12]/ns:element13");
		modifier.modify();

result xml:

		<root xmlns="http://localhost">
			<element1>
				<element11/>
			</element1>
			<element1>
				<element12/>
				<element13/>
			</element1>
			<element2/>
			<element3/>
		</root>

a new element ns:element13 is being added