Why do you think that using XML is the best option? Where do you plan on storing these files? Have you thought of just entering this information in a database instead (which is the more common and easier solution).
Java is an Object-oriented language. Objects are almost ALWAYS easier to use and faster than XML when you're not using XML as a program-to-program communication mechanism. Just create objects to hold the selections -- if they need to persist over a long time, then store the objects in a database (
you should look into a commercial or free object-to-relational mapping tool like Hibernate -- the folks in the Object-to-Relational forum always have opinions on things like this).
Kyle