XML and Java: Other APIs

We conclude Part 2 of our "XML and Java" article with several other toolkits which are basically unrelated, even though they can be used together.

Docuverse DOM SDK

Docuverse DOM SDK (previously called SAXDOM and then FreeDOM) is a free implementation of the W3C DOM, much as is Sun's XML Library and IBM's XPK4J, discussed elsewhere in this article. Don Park's DOM SDK is layered on top of SAX; it provides a DOM (Document Object Model) interface in Java. DOM SDK can be used with Swing to support custom node implementations. The toolkit supports both XML and HTML DOMs. Third party software with which DOM SDK is compatible includes: Coins, DOM Parser, Koala XSL Engine, and SAXON. It is compatible with JDK 1.2 (and 1.1).

SAXON

URL: http://home.iclweb.com/icl2/mhkay/saxon.html

API User's Guide: http://home.iclweb.com/icl2/mhkay/saxon-guide.html

SAXON facilitates processing XML documents by performing XML to XML or XML to HTML transformations (a la XSL). It is particularly suited for applications that need to process a very specific document type, such as those that conform to a DTD written specifically for the application. Like most other APIs in this article, SAXON is layered on top of SAX (and hence the name).

" SAXON [download] is a java class library that sits on top of a SAX Parser or DOM implementation, providing a variety of facilities that help the application to process an XML document. It is designed primarily to support applications handling specific document types (as opposed to general-purpose tools), especially applications doing XML-to-HTML or XML-to-XML transformations. SAXON works in principle with any SAX 1.0 conformant parser (the latest version is tested with xp, xml4j, SUN XML Library, AElfred) or with any implementation of the latest DOM specification (tested with docuverse and xml4j; should work with SUN again when they upgrade to the latest spec). The download includes source and object code, documentation, and sample applications. One of the sample applications is a DTD Generator which has proved popular in its own right."

"...SAXON works by performing a serial scan of the document, calling user-defined element handlers to process each element as it is encountered. The actual parsing is done by a SAX-compliant parser, which you must install separately. SAXON allows you to write your own element handlers or to use standard element handlers supplied with the package. Each type of element can have its own element handler, enabling you to keep your application modular....There is an option in SAXON to build the document tree (the DOM) in memory. If you do this, the application can process the data in exactly the same way as during a direct serial parse, but there is additional flexibility...."

"DTDGen [download] is a program that takes an XML document as input and produces a Document Type Definition (DTD) as output. The aim of the program is to give you a quick start in writing a DTD. The DTD is one of the many possible DTDs to which the input document conforms. Typically you will want to examine the DTD and edit it to describe your intended documents more precisely. In a few cases you will have to edit the DTD before you can use it."

XML Testbed

URL: http://xml.com/xml/pub/tools/xmlt/index.html

Steve Withall's XML Testbed provides "its own supporting XML infrastructure, including an XML parser and grove. A key feature of the infrastructure is a 'node type registry', which allows dynamic control over which classes are used for particular types of elements - the element class to represent them, the parser class to parse them, the customizer class to edit them and the view class to display them (using a Swing text editor kit). The XML Testbed provides means to edit and then parse an XML source.... The software has been designed to be as modular as possible, to be divided into a suite of relatively small packages, each with a clear role.... [XML testbed includes a] nascent XSL engine, XML-based user interface configuration, and a database analyser for generating an XML file of the schema of a database." The overall structure includes a diagram that shows the relationship among the many packages. This software does not presently support DOM compliance.

Coming Next Month

Visit WDVL in mid January for Part 3: "XML and Java: A Perfect Pair: Tools" in which we will discuss a number of Java-based parsers, editors, and specialized software for XML.

XML and Java: Serialization APIs
XML and Java: The Perfect Pair: Part 2: Java APIs for XML