How to add XML String into an existing XML File using JAVA?

Question

I am having xml file called temp.xml with the below content.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?><combinedstaff>
<staff><firstname>added firstname</firstname><lastname>added lastname</lastname><nickname>added nickname</nickname><salary>$10,000</salary></staff></combinedstaff>

I am having xml string this way,

String sampleXML="<staff><firstname>fff</firstname><lastname>lll</lastname><nickname>nnn</nickname><salary>$20,000</salary></staff>";

I need to append this xml string to the above xml file, so that final xml should look this way,

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?><combinedstaff>
<staff><firstname>added firstname</firstname><lastname>added lastname</lastname><nickname>added nickname</nickname><salary>$10,000</salary></staff>
<staff><firstname>fff</firstname><lastname>lll</lastname><nickname>nnn</nickname><salary>$20,000</salary></staff>
</combinedstaff>

I have coded this way, But I am getting some junk characters like ;< are added to the xml string this way,

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?><combinedstaff>
<staff><firstname>added firstname</firstname><lastname>added lastname</lastname><nickname>added nickname</nickname><salary>$10,000</salary></staff><staff>&lt;staff&gt;&lt;firstname&gt;added firstname&lt;/firstname&gt;&lt;lastname&gt;added lastname&lt;/lastname&gt;&lt;nickname&gt;added nickname&lt;/nickname&gt;&lt;salary&gt;$10,000&lt;/salary&gt;&lt;/staff&gt;</staff><staff>&lt;staff&gt;&lt;firstname&gt;added firstname&lt;/firstname&gt;&lt;lastname&gt;added lastname&lt;/lastname&gt;&lt;nickname&gt;added nickname&lt;/nickname&gt;&lt;salary&gt;$10,000&lt;/salary&gt;&lt;/staff&gt;</staff><staff>&lt;staff&gt;&lt;firstname&gt;added firstname&lt;/firstname&gt;&lt;lastname&gt;added lastname&lt;/lastname&gt;&lt;nickname&gt;added nickname&lt;/nickname&gt;&lt;salary&gt;$10,000&lt;/salary&gt;&lt;/staff&gt;</staff></combinedstaff>

Here is my code,

public class writexml1 {

    public static void main (String args[]) 
    {

        File docFile = new File(".xml");

        Document doc = null;
        try 
        {
            DocumentBuilderFactory dbf = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
            DocumentBuilder db = dbf.newDocumentBuilder();
            doc = db.parse(docFile);
        } 
        catch (java.io.IOException e) 
        {
            System.out.println("Can't find the file");
        } 
        catch (Exception e) 
        {
            System.out.print("Problem parsing the file.");
        }

        Element root = doc.getDocumentElement();

        System.out.println("The root element is " + root.getNodeName() + ".\n");

        NodeList children = root.getChildNodes();
        System.out.print("There are "+children.getLength()+" child elements.\n");
        System.out.print("They are: \n");


        Element staffElement = doc.createElement("staff");

        Node updateText = doc.createTextNode("<firstname>added firstname</firstname><lastname>added lastname</lastname><nickname>added nickname</nickname><salary>$10,000</salary></staff>");
        staffElement.appendChild(updateText);

        root.appendChild(staffElement);

        try{
            String outputURL = "temp.xml";

            DOMSource source = new DOMSource(doc);
            StreamResult result = new StreamResult(new FileOutputStream(outputURL));

            TransformerFactory transFactory = TransformerFactory.newInstance();
            Transformer transformer = transFactory.newTransformer();

            transformer.transform(source, result);

        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

    }
}

How can i solve this issue? Where is the issue ?

Can someone help?

Answer 1

Dont add your nested elements as text.

The line:

Node updateText = doc.createTextNode("<firstname>added firstname</firstname><lastname>added lastname</lastname><nickname>added nickname</nickname><salary>$10,000</salary></staff>");

What you want to do is pare this string as the XML it is and then append it to the the combinedstaff-element.

Take a peek at the accepted answer here on how to create XML from a string: How to create a XML object from String in Java?

And apply that solution on your xml-string:

"<staff><firstname>added firstname</firstname><lastname>added lastname</lastname><nickname>added nickname</nickname><salary>$10,000</salary></staff>"

Afterwards you take the resulting document and add it to you original XML. By doing something like this:

Node newNode =  doc.importNode(theNewDocument.getDocumentElement() , true); //Need to import prior to appending it

doc.getDocumentElement().appendChild(newNode);  

Its a much better solution to use the DOM to append content rather than trying to do it manully.

Answer 2

Try out using

 TransformerFactory transFactory = TransformerFactory.newInstance();
 Transformer transformer = transFactory.newTransformer();
 transformer.setOutputProperty(OutputKeys.ENCODING, "UTF-8");
 transformer.transform(source, result);