Can't parse XML (from web) using JSoup

Question

I am trying to work with small XML files sent from web and parse few attributes from them. How would I approach this in JSoup? I know it's not XML Parser but HTML one but it supports XML too and I don't have to build any Handlers, BuildFactories and such as I would have to in DOM, SAX etc.

Here is example xml: LINK I can't paste it here because it exits the code tag after every line - if someone can fix that I would be grateful.

And here is my piece of code::

String xml = "http://www.omdbapi.com/?t=Private%20Ryan&y=&plot=short&r=xml";
Document doc = Jsoup.parse(xml, "", Parser.xmlParser());
// want to select first occurrence of genre tag though there is only one it 
// doesn't work without .first() - but it doesn't parse it
Element genreFromXml = doc.select("genre").first();
String genre = genreFromXml.text();
System.out.println(genre);

It results in NPE at:

String genre = genreFromXml.text();

Nicolas Filotto · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-18 08:50:57Z

3

There are 2 issues in your code:

You provide a String representation of an URL while an XML content is expected, you should rather use the method parse(InputStream in, String charsetName, String baseUri, Parser parser) instead to parse your XML as an input stream.
There is no element genre in your XML, genre is an attribute of the element movie.

Here is how your code should look like:

String url = "http://www.omdbapi.com/?t=Private%20Ryan&y=&plot=short&r=xml";
// Parse the doc using an XML parser
Document doc = Jsoup.parse(new URL(url).openStream(), "UTF-8", "", Parser.xmlParser());
// Select the first element "movie"
Element movieFromXml = doc.select("movie").first();
// Get its attribute "genre"
String genre = movieFromXml.attr("genre");
// Print the result
System.out.println(genre);

Output:

Drama, War

edited Jan 18, 2017 at 8:50

answered Jan 18, 2017 at 8:35

Nicolas Filotto

45.2k11 gold badges97 silver badges129 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

5 Comments

doublemc Over a year ago

I have to handle Malformed and IO Exceptions from URL right? My IDE says I do, but want to check with you.

Nicolas Filotto Over a year ago

Yes you need to deal with the exception, you could simply throw it

doublemc Over a year ago

Do you know how could I access just the first word in genre without working on a String using array to pick only 'Drama'? Because very often movies on IMDB have many genres assigned and I need only one.

Nicolas Filotto Over a year ago

apart manipulating the String like what you describe for example, I have no idea, IMHO it is the only way

doublemc Over a year ago

Alright, did that with .split and then accessing right index. Thank you for your help!

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Can't parse XML (from web) using JSoup

1 Answer 1

5 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

5 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related