How can I add a clone of a node from one XML document into a different one?

Question

I have the following code:

private static Node GetText(String name)
{
    Node ret = textRoots.get(name);
    if (ret!=null)
    {
        ret=ret.cloneNode(true);
    }
    return ret;
}

And in a different method, I have the following lines:

Node textNode = GetText(name);
node.replaceChild(textNode, inner);

I would like this to work even if Node and the original document, which text comes from, happen to be different documents; how can I do this?

Sounds like you want Document.importNode.

Jon Skeet
– Jon Skeet

2016-01-05 08:22:05 +00:00
Commented Jan 5, 2016 at 8:22 — Jon Skeet
– Jon Skeet, Commented Jan 5, 2016 at 8:22

ParkerHalo · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-05 08:49:44Z

1

It very much depends on what you want to do!

If you just want to have that node in the other document you can use the importNode(...) method:

// someNode was created by another document
Node someNodeNew = doc2.importNode(someNode, true);

Now you can just add someNodeNew somewhere in doc2.

Doing this will create a copy of the old node!

If you want to move the node (including all subchilds) to another document you have 2 possibilities:

Using the documents adoptNode(...) method:

If it works, it will change the owner document of the node and will remove it from the old document. There's only one problem using this method:

The Javadoc states:

Attempts to adopt a node from another document to this document. If supported, it changes the owner document [...]

So this method does not have to be supported and might fail!

The second (and in my opinion better) option:

Import the Node and then remove it out of the old tree:

// someNode was created by another document
Node someNodeNew = doc2.importNode(someNode, true);
if (someNode.getParentNode() != null)
    someNode.getParentNode().removeChild(someNode);
someNode = someNodeNew ;

answered Jan 5, 2016 at 8:49

ParkerHalo

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2 Comments

user3745785 Over a year ago

Since the code I displayed above indicates that I want a copy (I used Node.clone(true) in the method shown above), I clearly want the first option you stated.

ParkerHalo Over a year ago

Glad i could help ;) Just make sure to set the second parameter from importNode(Node, boolean) to true in order to receive a "deep-copy" (if you need that)

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