Simple XML - how to get data starting from an inner element?

Question

I am trying to create elements from an xml using simple xml for android and I am not interested in the root, but only some nested elements. I am only interested in getting account object from the below xml.

<response xmlns="http://abc.abcdef.com/rest/xyz">
    <request>
        <channel>334892326</channel>
        <number>486</number>
    </request>
    <status>
        <code>200</code>
    </status>
    <results>
        <account>
            <creationTimestamp>2014-01-12T1:31:07Z</creationTimestamp>
            <category>
                <type>User-1</type>
                <name>User-1</name>
            </category>
        </account>
    <results>
</response>

I have tried the following in the bean, but my resulting object is containing all values as null.

@Root(strict = false, name = "account")
@Path("response/results/account")
public class Account implements Serializable {

    @Element(required = false)
    private String creationTimestamp;

    @Element(required = false)
    private Category category;
}

CroWell · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-22 12:39:35Z

2

At first specified XML isn't well-formed. But the main issue is caused by Path annotation - "... to map attributes and elements to an associated field or method", it doesn't work with classes, only with methods and fields.

So this code parses your XML structure easily (simplified version):

import org.simpleframework.xml.Element;
import org.simpleframework.xml.Path;
import org.simpleframework.xml.Root;
import org.simpleframework.xml.core.Persister;

import java.io.File;

@Root(strict = false)
public class Account {

    @Element
    @Path("results/account")
    String creationTimestamp;

    @Element
    @Path("results/account")
    Category category;

    public static void main(String[] args)
            throws Exception
    {
        Account account = new Persister().read(Account.class, new File("example.xml"));

        System.out.println(account.creationTimestamp);
        System.out.println(account.category.type);
        System.out.println(account.category.name);
    }
}

@Root
class Category {

    @Element
    String type;

    @Element
    String name;
}

Unfortunately @Path annotation couldn't be extracted as class annotation, that's why you have to write it for every field.

edited Sep 22, 2015 at 12:39

answered Sep 21, 2015 at 22:50

CroWell

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2 Comments

rohit Over a year ago

Is it really needed to create the Response class. Can't I directly get it into Account?

CroWell Over a year ago

Yes, you can, I updated the code - just one thing - without Response class you have to repeat @Path annotation for every field.

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