Writing a String containing XML to a file

Question

I generated xml file and I want to write it to file (with opportunity to use it later).

I generated easy xml output and wondering to know if exist some easy way to write it to file at readable format?

Code which generate xml file:

private static void generateXml(ItemGiftBuilder builder) {
    Document doc = builder.build(items);
    DOMImplementation impl = doc.getImplementation();
    DOMImplementationLS implLS = (DOMImplementationLS) impl.getFeature("LS", "3.0");

    LSSerializer ser = implLS.createLSSerializer();
    ser.getDomConfig().setParameter("format-pretty-print", true);

    String out = ser.writeToString(doc);
    System.out.println(out);
}

It easy stores this file to String.

After this I tried to write it to file:

public void writetoXmlFile(String xmlContent) {
    try {
        File theDir = new File("./output");
        if (!theDir.exists())
            theDir.mkdir();

        String fileName = "./output/" + this.getClass().getSimpleName() + "_"
                + Calendar.getInstance().getTimeInMillis() + ".xml";

        FileWriter writer = new FileWriter(new File(fileName));
        BufferedWriter out = new BufferedWriter(writer);
        writer.write(xmlContent.toString());
        out.newLine();
        writer.close();
    } catch (IOException ex) {
        System.out.println("Cannot write to file!");
    }
}

But it prints gibberish:

㰿硭氠癥牳楯渽∱⸰∠敮捯摩湧㴢啔䘭ㄶ∿㸊㱧楦琾ਠ†‼楴敭㸊.....

Generated xml has next encoding and structure:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16"?>
<gift>
    <item>
        <name>MilkChokolate</name>
        <sugar>26.8</sugar>
        <weight>154.8</weight>
    </item>
    // ...

I not sure about encoding. If is it right.

If not how to change this generation to UTF-8?

Or maybe writing xml have other nicer solution?

UPDATE:

I followed by suggestions rzymek, and changed write method:

public void writetoXmlFile(String xmlContent) {
    File theDir = new File("./output");
    if (!theDir.exists())
        theDir.mkdir();

    String fileName = "./output/" + this.getClass().getSimpleName() + "_"
            + Calendar.getInstance().getTimeInMillis() + ".xml";

    try(OutputStream stream = new FileOutputStream(new File(fileName))) {
          OutputStreamWriter out = new OutputStreamWriter(stream,
          StandardCharsets.UTF_16); 
          out.write(xmlContent.toString());
          out.write("\n"); 
    } catch (IOException ex) {
        System.out.println("Cannot write to file!");
    }
}

It generate file but - this file is empty.

How to solve this issue?

I would suggest to split this question into at least two: (1) Writing a String containing XML to a file. (2) Creating a file with a unique name. (2) is quite independent on (1). — Bartosz Klimek
– Bartosz Klimek, Commented Dec 17, 2013 at 12:08

rzymek · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-17 13:12:43Z

1

Specify the encoding when writing the file:

try(OutputStream stream = new FileOutputStream(new File(fileName))) {   
    try(OutputStreamWriter out = new OutputStreamWriter(stream, StandardCharsets.UTF_16)) {
        out.write(xmlContent.toString());
        out.write("\n");
    }
} catch (IOException e) {
     System.out.println("Cannot write to file!");
     e.printStackTrace();
}

edited Dec 17, 2013 at 13:12

answered Dec 17, 2013 at 12:29

rzymek

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2 Comments

catch32 Over a year ago

It causes another problem. This prints empty file. I updated question.

rzymek Over a year ago

Let's autoclose out as well. Updated.

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