Hi Andy,
Of course you can create a new xml document rather than just manipulate an existing xml document. Look at the DOM API and you'll see how to use the different methods. I found it much easier to work with JDOM, you can visit the JDOM home page and download the relevant jar files.
I've put together the following small program which uses jdom to create a small xml file:
// JDOM classes
import org.jdom.*;
import org.jdom.input.SAXBuilder;
import org.jdom.output.XMLOutputter;
// Standard classes
import java.util.*;
import java.io.*;
public class BuildJdom {
public static void main(String[] args) {
if (args.length == 0) {
System.out.println("Usage: java BuildJdom URL");
System.exit(0);
}
//
// Data to be loaded into the XML doc
String senders [] = {"
[email protected]",
"
[email protected]"};
String receivers [] = {"
[email protected]",
"
[email protected]"};
String messages [] = {"message1","message2"};
//
Element rootElement = null;
Element messageTag = null;
Element fromTag = null;
Element toTag = null;
Element textTag = null;
//
rootElement = new Element("Mail");
//
Vector mailVector = new Vector();
//
for (int i = 0; i < senders.length; i++) {
messageTag = new Element("Message");
mailVector.add(messageTag);
}
rootElement.setChildren(mailVector);
//
// Load nodes under Message nodes
//
int i = 0;
Iterator it = mailVector.iterator();
while (it.hasNext()) {
Element el = (Element)it.next();
Vector messageVector = new Vector();
if (i < senders.length) {
fromTag = new Element("From");
toTag = new Element("To");
textTag = new Element("Text");
fromTag.setText(senders[i]);
toTag.setText(receivers[i]);
textTag.setText(messages[i]);
messageVector.add(fromTag);
messageVector.add(toTag);
messageVector.add(textTag);
el.setChildren(messageVector);
i++;
}
}
//
//
Document doc = new Document(rootElement,
new DocType("Mail", "mail.dtd"));
//
try {
String indent = " ";
boolean newLines= true;
XMLOutputter pr = new XMLOutputter(indent,
newLines);
pr.output(doc,new FileOutputStream(args[0] + ".xml"));
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println(e.getMessage());
}
}
}