Am I doing this a good way or bad way?

[Gregg Bolinger]

Ok, I am writing an application and I decided to use an XML file(s) to store configuration information. I am going to post my code and I would like someone to tell me if this is the correct approach or if I am way off base here because I have never done this stuff before.
First, this is my XML config file.

<game>
<network>
<sites>
<site>
<site-name>signupsite</site-name>
<site-url>http://www.gthought.com</site-url>
</site>
<site>
<site-name>getpassword</site-name>
<site-url>http://www.gthought.com</site-url>
</site>
</sites>

<game-servers>
<server>
<server-name>Server 1</server-name>
<server-url>http://www.gthought.com</server-url>
<server-port>8888</server-port>
</server>
<server>
<server-name>Server 2</server-name>
<server-url>http://www.gthought.com</server-url>
<server-port>8888</server-port>
</server>
</game-servers>
</network>
</game>

Now, here is the file where I do the work wiht the config file. I get an instance of this file in every class I need, and then I am building methods as I go for the configuration information that I need to get and I have getXXXX() methods to retrieve this info.

/*
 * Created on Nov 13, 2003
 *
 * To change the template for this generated file go to
 * Window - Preferences - Java - Code Generation - Code and Comments
 */
package com.gthought.jff.ui.utils;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Vector;
import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
import org.jdom.Document;
import org.jdom.Element;
import org.jdom.JDOMException;
import org.jdom.input.SAXBuilder;
/**
 * @author gthought
 *
 * To change the template for this generated type comment go to
 * Window - Preferences - Java - Code Generation - Code and Comments
 */
public class Configuration
{
static Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(Configuration.class.getName());
public static Configuration theOnlyOne = null;
private Element root;

public static Configuration getConfig(String file)
{
if (theOnlyOne == null)
{
theOnlyOne = new Configuration(file);
return theOnlyOne;
}
else
{
return theOnlyOne;
}
}

private Configuration(String file)
{
try
{
SAXBuilder builder = new SAXBuilder();
Document doc = builder.build(new File(file));
root = doc.getRootElement();

}
catch(IOException ioE)
{
logger.debug(ioE.getMessage());
}
catch(JDOMException domE)
{
logger.debug(domE.getMessage());
}

}

public Vector getServers()
{
Vector serverVect = new Vector();
List list = root.getChild("network").getChild("game-servers").getChildren("server");
Iterator i = list.iterator();
while(i.hasNext())
{
String e = ((Element)i.next()).getChild("server-name").getText();
serverVect.add(e);
}
return serverVect;
}

public String getSite(String site)
{
String siteInfo = null;
List list = root.getChild("network").getChild("sites").getChildren("site");
Iterator i = list.iterator();
while(i.hasNext())
{
Element e = ((Element)i.next());
System.out.println(e.getChild("site-name").getText());
System.out.println(e.getChild("site-url").getText());
if (e.getChild("site-name").getText().equals(site))
{
System.out.println("Found a match");
siteInfo = e.getChild("site-url").getText();
System.out.println(siteInfo);
}


}
return siteInfo;
}

}

Everything works, so I am not having any problems there. I am more interested in my approach. Thanks for any suggestions.

[Lasse Koskela]

I don't see anything wrong in your approach. I might be blind, of course, so another opinion and a pair of eyes would be more than recommended...