Absolute path with XML parser in java

Question

I have the following code to open up an XML file for parsing. My problem is with the variable designPath: it currently has to be a relative path from my program's root directory. However, when I pass an absolute path it doesn't work.

// Get the DOM Builder Factory
DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();

// Get the DOM Builder
DocumentBuilder builder = factory.newDocumentBuilder();

// Load and Parse the XML document
// document contains the complete XML as a Tree
Document document = builder.parse(ClassLoader.getSystemResourceAsStream(designPath));

How can I make this work with either an absolute or relative path in the designPath variable?

The issue is with the function ClassLoader.getSystemResourceAsStream that takes a "resource of the specified name from the search path used to load classes." according to Java docs but I want to be able to use it with an absolute path.

Note that my designPath may be on a different drive than my program.

barbiepylon · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-16 14:05:52Z

1

Pass in an InputStream instead:

// Get the DOM Builder Factory
DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();

// Get the DOM Builder
DocumentBuilder builder = factory.newDocumentBuilder();

// Load and Parse the XML document
// document contains the complete XML as a Tree
File file = new File(PATH_TO_FILE);
InputStream inputStream = new FileInputStream(file);

Document document = builder.parse(inputStream);

or simple pass a new File object

// Get the DOM Builder Factory
DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();

// Get the DOM Builder
DocumentBuilder builder = factory.newDocumentBuilder();

// Load and Parse the XML document
// document contains the complete XML as a Tree
Document document = builder.parse(new File(PATH_TO_FILE));

edited Apr 16, 2015 at 14:05

answered Apr 15, 2015 at 20:23

barbiepylon

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Comments

Sanj · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-15 20:29:18Z

0

Well you can't because as you mentioned, getSystemResourceAsStream only searches the classpath.

You may have to so something like this.

Document document = null;
if (ClassLoader.getSystemResource(designPath) != null)
{
    document = builder.parse(ClassLoader.getSystemResourceAsStream(designPath));
}
else
{
    // use standard file loader
    document = builder.parse(new File(designPath));
}

Swap the if clauses around if you want the file on the file system to take precedence.

answered Apr 15, 2015 at 20:29

Sanj

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3 Comments

mohsaied Over a year ago

What's the difference to passing in the File object straight away, as opposed to passing in the InputStream Object as in the above solution? Is there a difference?

Sanj Over a year ago

If your classpath is something like CP=/home/user/xmlfiles:program.jar, and the file path is just design.xml, then your code will search /home/user/xmlfiles first, and if that fails, it will then look for design.xml relative to where you ran it.

barbiepylon Over a year ago

@mohsaied I think in your case it doesn't matter whether you pass the InputStream or the File object, but in other cases you don't always get an InputStream from a file so it might make more sense to pass the InputStream. I'll update my answer so that others know there is an option!

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