Kotlin:
Working with XML
How to:
In Kotlin, you can use the built-in javax.xml.parsers for parsing:
import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory
import org.w3c.dom.Document
fun parseXml(xmlData: String): Document {
val dbFactory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance()
val dBuilder = dbFactory.newDocumentBuilder()
return dBuilder.parse(xmlData.byteInputStream())
}To create XML documents, you might use javax.xml.transform:
import javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory
import javax.xml.transform.dom.DOMSource
import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamResult
import org.w3c.dom.Document
import java.io.StringWriter
fun convertDocumentToString(doc: Document): String {
val transformer = TransformerFactory.newInstance().newTransformer()
val result = StringWriter()
transformer.transform(DOMSource(doc), StreamResult(result))
return result.toString()
}Sample output for a document conversion to String would simply be your XML content in a string format.
Deep Dive
XML has been a cornerstone of web and software development since the 90s, favorited for its readability and structured hierarchy. Though JSON has gained popularity for web services due to its simplicity and smaller message size, XML remains prevalent in enterprise environments, SOAP-based web services, and configurations (like Android layout files).
There are various libraries and APIs aside from the built-in features of Kotlin/Java for XML handling, such as Simple XML Serialization and Jackson XML module. But javax.xml.parsers and javax.xml.transform typically serve most needs without adding external dependencies.
When dealing with XML in Kotlin, key implementation details include handling character encoding properly and managing XML entities to prevent XML injection attacks. Be mindful of namespace complexities and schema validation when parsing XML to ensure data integrity.