org.jdom

Class Element

Implemented Interfaces:
Cloneable, Parent, Serializable

public class Element
extends Content
implements Parent

An XML element. Methods allow the user to get and manipulate its child elements and content, directly access the element's textual content, manipulate its attributes, and manage namespaces.
Version:
$Revision: 1.152 $, $Date: 2004/09/03 06:35:39 $
Authors:
Brett McLaughlin
Jason Hunter
Lucas Gonze
Kevin Regan
Dan Schaffer
Yusuf Goolamabbas
Kent C. Johnson
Jools Enticknap
Alex Rosen
Bradley S. Huffman

Field Summary

protected List
additionalNamespaces
Additional namespace declarations to store on this element; useful during output
protected String
name
The local name of the element
protected Namespace
namespace
The namespace of the element

Fields inherited from class org.jdom.Content

parent

Constructor Summary

Element()
This protected constructor is provided in order to support an Element subclass that wants full control over variable initialization.
Element(String name)
Create a new element with the supplied (local) name and no namespace.
Element(String name, String uri)
Creates a new element with the supplied (local) name and a namespace given by a URI.
Element(String name, String prefix, String uri)
Creates a new element with the supplied (local) name and a namespace given by the supplied prefix and URI combination.
Element(String name, Namespace namespace)
Creates a new element with the supplied (local) name and namespace.

Method Summary

Element
addContent(Collection collection)
Appends all children in the given collection to the end of the content list.
Element
addContent(String str)
This adds text content to this element.
Element
addContent(int index, Collection c)
Inserts the content in a collection into the content list at the given index.
Element
addContent(int index, Content child)
Inserts the child into the content list at the given index.
Element
addContent(Content child)
Appends the child to the end of the element's content list.
void
addNamespaceDeclaration(Namespace additional)
Adds a namespace declarations to this element.
Object
clone()
This returns a deep clone of this element.
List
cloneContent()
Returns a list containing detached clones of this parent's content list.
List
getAdditionalNamespaces()
Returns a list of the additional namespace declarations on this element.
Attribute
getAttribute(String name)
This returns the attribute for this element with the given name and within no namespace, or null if no such attribute exists.
Attribute
getAttribute(String name, Namespace ns)
This returns the attribute for this element with the given name and within the given Namespace, or null if no such attribute exists.
String
getAttributeValue(String name)
This returns the attribute value for the attribute with the given name and within no namespace, null if there is no such attribute, and the empty string if the attribute value is empty.
String
getAttributeValue(String name, String def)
This returns the attribute value for the attribute with the given name and within no namespace, or the passed-in default if there is no such attribute.
String
getAttributeValue(String name, Namespace ns)
This returns the attribute value for the attribute with the given name and within the given Namespace, null if there is no such attribute, and the empty string if the attribute value is empty.
String
getAttributeValue(String name, Namespace ns, String def)
This returns the attribute value for the attribute with the given name and within the given Namespace, or the passed-in default if there is no such attribute.
List
getAttributes()
This returns the complete set of attributes for this element, as a List of Attribute objects in no particular order, or an empty list if there are none.
Element
getChild(String name)
This returns the first child element within this element with the given local name and belonging to no namespace.
Element
getChild(String name, Namespace ns)
This returns the first child element within this element with the given local name and belonging to the given namespace.
String
getChildText(String name)
Returns the textual content of the named child element, or null if there's no such child.
String
getChildText(String name, Namespace ns)
Returns the textual content of the named child element, or null if there's no such child.
String
getChildTextNormalize(String name)
Returns the normalized textual content of the named child element, or null if there's no such child.
String
getChildTextNormalize(String name, Namespace ns)
Returns the normalized textual content of the named child element, or null if there's no such child.
String
getChildTextTrim(String name)
Returns the trimmed textual content of the named child element, or null if there's no such child.
String
getChildTextTrim(String name, Namespace ns)
Returns the trimmed textual content of the named child element, or null if there's no such child.
List
getChildren()
This returns a List of all the child elements nested directly (one level deep) within this element, as Element objects.
List
getChildren(String name)
This returns a List of all the child elements nested directly (one level deep) within this element with the given local name and belonging to no namespace, returned as Element objects.
List
getChildren(String name, Namespace ns)
This returns a List of all the child elements nested directly (one level deep) within this element with the given local name and belonging to the given Namespace, returned as Element objects.
List
getContent()
This returns the full content of the element as a List which may contain objects of type Text, Element, Comment, ProcessingInstruction, CDATA, and EntityRef.
Content
getContent(int index)
Returns the child at the given index.
List
getContent(Filter filter)
Return a filter view of this Element's content.
int
getContentSize()
Returns the number of children in this parent's content list.
Iterator
getDescendants()
Returns an iterator that walks over all descendants in document order.
Iterator
getDescendants(Filter filter)
Returns an iterator that walks over all descendants in document order applying the Filter to return only elements that match the filter rule.
String
getName()
Returns the (local) name of the element (without any namespace prefix).
Namespace
getNamespace()
Returns the element's Namespace.
Namespace
getNamespace(String prefix)
Returns the Namespace corresponding to the given prefix in scope for this element.
String
getNamespacePrefix()
Returns the namespace prefix of the element or an empty string if none exists.
String
getNamespaceURI()
Returns the namespace URI mapped to this element's prefix (or the in-scope default namespace URI if no prefix).
String
getQualifiedName()
Returns the full name of the element, in the form [namespacePrefix]:[localName].
String
getText()
Returns the textual content directly held under this element as a string.
String
getTextNormalize()
Returns the textual content of this element with all surrounding whitespace removed and internal whitespace normalized to a single space.
String
getTextTrim()
Returns the textual content of this element with all surrounding whitespace removed.
String
getValue()
Returns the XPath 1.0 string value of this element, which is the complete, ordered content of all text node descendants of this element (i.e. the text that's left after all references are resolved and all other markup is stripped out.)
int
indexOf(Content child)
Returns the index of the supplied child in the content list, or -1 if not a child of this parent.
boolean
isAncestor(Element element)
Determines if this element is the ancestor of another element.
boolean
isRootElement()
Returns whether this element is a root element.
boolean
removeAttribute(String name)
This removes the attribute with the given name and within no namespace.
boolean
removeAttribute(String name, Namespace ns)
This removes the attribute with the given name and within the given Namespace.
boolean
removeAttribute(Attribute attribute)
This removes the supplied Attribute should it exist.
boolean
removeChild(String name)
This removes the first child element (one level deep) with the given local name and belonging to no namespace.
boolean
removeChild(String name, Namespace ns)
This removes the first child element (one level deep) with the given local name and belonging to the given namespace.
boolean
removeChildren(String name)
This removes all child elements (one level deep) with the given local name and belonging to no namespace.
boolean
removeChildren(String name, Namespace ns)
This removes all child elements (one level deep) with the given local name and belonging to the given namespace.
List
removeContent()
Removes all child content from this parent.
Content
removeContent(int index)
Removes and returns the child at the given index, or returns null if there's no such child.
boolean
removeContent(Content child)
Removes a single child node from the content list.
List
removeContent(Filter filter)
Remove all child content from this parent matching the supplied filter.
void
removeNamespaceDeclaration(Namespace additionalNamespace)
Removes an additional namespace declarations from this element.
Element
setAttribute(String name, String value)
This sets an attribute value for this element.
Element
setAttribute(String name, String value, Namespace ns)
This sets an attribute value for this element.
Element
setAttribute(Attribute attribute)
This sets an attribute value for this element.
Element
setAttributes(List newAttributes)
This sets the attributes of the element.
Element
setContent(Collection newContent)
This sets the content of the element.
Parent
setContent(int index, Collection collection)
Replace the child at the given index whith the supplied collection.
Element
setContent(int index, Content child)
Replace the current child the given index with the supplied child.
Element
setContent(Content child)
Set this element's content to be the supplied child.
Element
setName(String name)
Sets the (local) name of the element.
Element
setNamespace(Namespace namespace)
Sets the element's Namespace.
Element
setText(String text)
Sets the content of the element to be the text given.
String
toString()
This returns a String representation of the Element, suitable for debugging.

Methods inherited from class org.jdom.Content

clone, detach, equals, getDocument, getParent, getParentElement, getValue, hashCode, setParent

Field Details

additionalNamespaces

protected List additionalNamespaces
Additional namespace declarations to store on this element; useful during output

name

protected String name
The local name of the element

namespace

protected Namespace namespace
The namespace of the element

Constructor Details

Element

protected Element()
This protected constructor is provided in order to support an Element subclass that wants full control over variable initialization. It intentionally leaves all instance variables null, allowing a lightweight subclass implementation. The subclass is responsible for ensuring all the get and set methods on Element behave as documented.

When implementing an Element subclass which doesn't require full control over variable initialization, be aware that simply calling super() (or letting the compiler add the implicit super() call) will not initialize the instance variables which will cause many of the methods to throw a NullPointerException. Therefore, the constructor for these subclasses should call one of the public constructors so variable initialization is handled automatically.


Element

public Element(String name)
Create a new element with the supplied (local) name and no namespace.
Parameters:
name - local name of the element

Element

public Element(String name,
               String uri)
Creates a new element with the supplied (local) name and a namespace given by a URI. The element will be put into the unprefixed (default) namespace.
Parameters:
name - name of the element
uri - namespace URI for the element

Element

public Element(String name,
               String prefix,
               String uri)
Creates a new element with the supplied (local) name and a namespace given by the supplied prefix and URI combination.
Parameters:
name - local name of the element
prefix - namespace prefix
uri - namespace URI for the element

Element

public Element(String name,
               Namespace namespace)
Creates a new element with the supplied (local) name and namespace. If the provided namespace is null, the element will have no namespace.
Parameters:
name - local name of the element
namespace - namespace for the element

Method Details

addContent

public Element addContent(Collection collection)
Appends all children in the given collection to the end of the content list. In event of an exception during add the original content will be unchanged and the objects in the supplied collection will be unaltered.
Parameters:
collection - collection to append
Returns:
the element on which the method was called

addContent

public Element addContent(String str)
This adds text content to this element. It does not replace the existing content as does setText().
Parameters:
str - String to add
Returns:
this element modified

addContent

public Element addContent(int index,
                          Collection c)
Inserts the content in a collection into the content list at the given index. In event of an exception the original content will be unchanged and the objects in the supplied collection will be unaltered.
Parameters:
index - location for adding the collection
c - collection to insert
Returns:
the parent on which the method was called

addContent

public Element addContent(int index,
                          Content child)
Inserts the child into the content list at the given index.
Parameters:
index - location for adding the collection
child - child to insert
Returns:
the parent on which the method was called

addContent

public Element addContent(Content child)
Appends the child to the end of the element's content list.
Parameters:
child - child to append to end of content list
Returns:
the element on which the method was called

addNamespaceDeclaration

public void addNamespaceDeclaration(Namespace additional)
Adds a namespace declarations to this element. This should not be used to add the declaration for this element itself; that should be assigned in the construction of the element. Instead, this is for adding namespace declarations on the element not relating directly to itself. It's used during output to for stylistic reasons move namespace declarations higher in the tree than they would have to be.
Parameters:
additional - namespace to add

clone

public Object clone()
This returns a deep clone of this element. The new element is detached from its parent, and getParent() on the clone will return null.
Specified by:
clone in interface Parent
Overrides:
clone in interface Content
Returns:
the clone of this element

cloneContent

public List cloneContent()
Returns a list containing detached clones of this parent's content list.
Specified by:
cloneContent in interface Parent
Returns:
list of cloned child content

getAdditionalNamespaces

public List getAdditionalNamespaces()
Returns:
a List of the additional namespace declarations

getAttribute

public Attribute getAttribute(String name)
This returns the attribute for this element with the given name and within no namespace, or null if no such attribute exists.
Parameters:
name - name of the attribute to return
Returns:
attribute for the element

getAttribute

public Attribute getAttribute(String name,
                              Namespace ns)
This returns the attribute for this element with the given name and within the given Namespace, or null if no such attribute exists.
Parameters:
name - name of the attribute to return
ns - Namespace to search within
Returns:
attribute for the element

getAttributeValue

public String getAttributeValue(String name)
This returns the attribute value for the attribute with the given name and within no namespace, null if there is no such attribute, and the empty string if the attribute value is empty.
Parameters:
name - name of the attribute whose value to be returned
Returns:
the named attribute's value, or null if no such attribute

getAttributeValue

public String getAttributeValue(String name,
                                String def)
This returns the attribute value for the attribute with the given name and within no namespace, or the passed-in default if there is no such attribute.
Parameters:
name - name of the attribute whose value to be returned
def - a default value to return if the attribute does not exist
Returns:
the named attribute's value, or the default if no such attribute

getAttributeValue

public String getAttributeValue(String name,
                                Namespace ns)
This returns the attribute value for the attribute with the given name and within the given Namespace, null if there is no such attribute, and the empty string if the attribute value is empty.
Parameters:
name - name of the attribute whose valud is to be returned
ns - Namespace to search within
Returns:
the named attribute's value, or null if no such attribute

getAttributeValue

public String getAttributeValue(String name,
                                Namespace ns,
                                String def)
This returns the attribute value for the attribute with the given name and within the given Namespace, or the passed-in default if there is no such attribute.
Parameters:
name - name of the attribute whose valud is to be returned
ns - Namespace to search within
def - a default value to return if the attribute does not exist
Returns:
the named attribute's value, or the default if no such attribute

getAttributes

public List getAttributes()
This returns the complete set of attributes for this element, as a List of Attribute objects in no particular order, or an empty list if there are none. The returned list is "live" and changes to it affect the element's actual attributes.
Returns:
attributes for the element

getChild

public Element getChild(String name)
This returns the first child element within this element with the given local name and belonging to no namespace. If no elements exist for the specified name and namespace, null is returned.
Parameters:
name - local name of child element to match
Returns:
the first matching child element, or null if not found

getChild

public Element getChild(String name,
                        Namespace ns)
This returns the first child element within this element with the given local name and belonging to the given namespace. If no elements exist for the specified name and namespace, null is returned.
Parameters:
name - local name of child element to match
ns - Namespace to search within
Returns:
the first matching child element, or null if not found

getChildText

public String getChildText(String name)
Returns the textual content of the named child element, or null if there's no such child. This method is a convenience because calling getChild().getText() can throw a NullPointerException.
Parameters:
name - the name of the child
Returns:
text content for the named child, or null if no such child

getChildText

public String getChildText(String name,
                           Namespace ns)
Returns the textual content of the named child element, or null if there's no such child.
Parameters:
name - the name of the child
ns - the namespace of the child
Returns:
text content for the named child, or null if no such child

getChildTextNormalize

public String getChildTextNormalize(String name)
Parameters:
name - the name of the child
Returns:
normalized text content for the named child, or null if no such child

getChildTextNormalize

public String getChildTextNormalize(String name,
                                    Namespace ns)
Returns the normalized textual content of the named child element, or null if there's no such child.
Parameters:
name - the name of the child
ns - the namespace of the child
Returns:
normalized text content for the named child, or null if no such child

getChildTextTrim

public String getChildTextTrim(String name)
Parameters:
name - the name of the child
Returns:
trimmed text content for the named child, or null if no such child

getChildTextTrim

public String getChildTextTrim(String name,
                               Namespace ns)
Returns the trimmed textual content of the named child element, or null if there's no such child.
Parameters:
name - the name of the child
ns - the namespace of the child
Returns:
trimmed text content for the named child, or null if no such child

getChildren

public List getChildren()
This returns a List of all the child elements nested directly (one level deep) within this element, as Element objects. If this target element has no nested elements, an empty List is returned. The returned list is "live" in document order and changes to it affect the element's actual contents.

Sequential traversal through the List is best done with a Iterator since the underlying implement of List.size() may not be the most efficient.

No recursion is performed, so elements nested two levels deep would have to be obtained with:

 
   Iterator itr = (currentElement.getChildren()).iterator();
   while(itr.hasNext()) {
     Element oneLevelDeep = (Element)itr.next();
     List twoLevelsDeep = oneLevelDeep.getChildren();
     // Do something with these children
   }
 
 
Returns:
list of child Element objects for this element

getChildren

public List getChildren(String name)
This returns a List of all the child elements nested directly (one level deep) within this element with the given local name and belonging to no namespace, returned as Element objects. If this target element has no nested elements with the given name outside a namespace, an empty List is returned. The returned list is "live" in document order and changes to it affect the element's actual contents.

Please see the notes for getChildren for a code example.

Parameters:
name - local name for the children to match
Returns:
all matching child elements

getChildren

public List getChildren(String name,
                        Namespace ns)
This returns a List of all the child elements nested directly (one level deep) within this element with the given local name and belonging to the given Namespace, returned as Element objects. If this target element has no nested elements with the given name in the given Namespace, an empty List is returned. The returned list is "live" in document order and changes to it affect the element's actual contents.

Please see the notes for getChildren for a code example.

Parameters:
name - local name for the children to match
ns - Namespace to search within
Returns:
all matching child elements

getContent

public List getContent()
This returns the full content of the element as a List which may contain objects of type Text, Element, Comment, ProcessingInstruction, CDATA, and EntityRef. The List returned is "live" in document order and modifications to it affect the element's actual contents. Whitespace content is returned in its entirety.

Sequential traversal through the List is best done with an Iterator since the underlying implement of List.size() may require walking the entire list.

Specified by:
getContent in interface Parent
Returns:
a List containing the mixed content of the element: may contain Text, Element, Comment, ProcessingInstruction, CDATA, and EntityRef objects.

getContent

public Content getContent(int index)
Returns the child at the given index.
Specified by:
getContent in interface Parent
Parameters:
index - location of desired child
Returns:
child at the given index

getContent

public List getContent(Filter filter)
Return a filter view of this Element's content.

Sequential traversal through the List is best done with a Iterator since the underlying implement of List.size() may require walking the entire list.

Specified by:
getContent in interface Parent
Parameters:
filter - Filter to apply
Returns:
List - filtered Element content

getContentSize

public int getContentSize()
Specified by:
getContentSize in interface Parent
Returns:
number of children

getDescendants

public Iterator getDescendants()
Returns an iterator that walks over all descendants in document order.
Specified by:
getDescendants in interface Parent
Returns:
an iterator to walk descendants

getDescendants

public Iterator getDescendants(Filter filter)
Returns an iterator that walks over all descendants in document order applying the Filter to return only elements that match the filter rule. With filters you can match only Elements, only Comments, Elements or Comments, only Elements with a given name and/or prefix, and so on.
Specified by:
getDescendants in interface Parent
Parameters:
filter - filter to select which descendants to see
Returns:
an iterator to walk descendants within a filter

getName

public String getName()
Returns the (local) name of the element (without any namespace prefix).
Returns:
local element name

getNamespace

public Namespace getNamespace()
Returns the element's Namespace.
Returns:
the element's namespace

getNamespace

public Namespace getNamespace(String prefix)
Returns the Namespace corresponding to the given prefix in scope for this element. This involves searching up the tree, so the results depend on the current location of the element. Returns null if there is no namespace in scope with the given prefix at this point in the document.
Parameters:
prefix - namespace prefix to look up
Returns:
the Namespace for this prefix at this location, or null if none

getNamespacePrefix

public String getNamespacePrefix()
Returns the namespace prefix of the element or an empty string if none exists.
Returns:
the namespace prefix

getNamespaceURI

public String getNamespaceURI()
Returns the namespace URI mapped to this element's prefix (or the in-scope default namespace URI if no prefix). If no mapping is found, an empty string is returned.
Returns:
the namespace URI for this element

getQualifiedName

public String getQualifiedName()
Returns the full name of the element, in the form [namespacePrefix]:[localName]. If the element does not have a namespace prefix, then the local name is returned.
Returns:
qualified name of the element (including namespace prefix)

getText

public String getText()
Returns the textual content directly held under this element as a string. This includes all text within this single element, including whitespace and CDATA sections if they exist. It's essentially the concatenation of all Text and CDATA nodes returned by getContent. The call does not recurse into child elements. If no textual value exists for the element, an empty string is returned.
Returns:
text content for this element, or empty string if none

getTextNormalize

public String getTextNormalize()
Returns the textual content of this element with all surrounding whitespace removed and internal whitespace normalized to a single space. If no textual value exists for the element, or if only whitespace exists, the empty string is returned.
Returns:
normalized text content for this element, or empty string if none

getTextTrim

public String getTextTrim()
Returns the textual content of this element with all surrounding whitespace removed. If no textual value exists for the element, or if only whitespace exists, the empty string is returned.
Returns:
trimmed text content for this element, or empty string if none

getValue

public String getValue()
Returns the XPath 1.0 string value of this element, which is the complete, ordered content of all text node descendants of this element (i.e. the text that's left after all references are resolved and all other markup is stripped out.)
Overrides:
getValue in interface Content
Returns:
a concatentation of all text node descendants

indexOf

public int indexOf(Content child)
Returns the index of the supplied child in the content list, or -1 if not a child of this parent.
Specified by:
indexOf in interface Parent
Parameters:
child - child to search for
Returns:
index of child, or -1 if not found

isAncestor

public boolean isAncestor(Element element)
Determines if this element is the ancestor of another element.
Parameters:
element - Element to check against
Returns:
true if this element is the ancestor of the supplied element

isRootElement

public boolean isRootElement()
Returns whether this element is a root element. This can be used in tandem with Element to determine if an element has any "attachments" to a parent element or document.
Returns:
whether this is a root element

removeAttribute

public boolean removeAttribute(String name)
This removes the attribute with the given name and within no namespace. If no such attribute exists, this method does nothing.
Parameters:
name - name of attribute to remove
Returns:
whether the attribute was removed

removeAttribute

public boolean removeAttribute(String name,
                               Namespace ns)
This removes the attribute with the given name and within the given Namespace. If no such attribute exists, this method does nothing.
Parameters:
name - name of attribute to remove
ns - namespace URI of attribute to remove
Returns:
whether the attribute was removed

removeAttribute

public boolean removeAttribute(Attribute attribute)
This removes the supplied Attribute should it exist.
Parameters:
attribute - Reference to the attribute to be removed.
Returns:
whether the attribute was removed

removeChild

public boolean removeChild(String name)
This removes the first child element (one level deep) with the given local name and belonging to no namespace. Returns true if a child was removed.
Parameters:
name - the name of child elements to remove
Returns:
whether deletion occurred

removeChild

public boolean removeChild(String name,
                           Namespace ns)
This removes the first child element (one level deep) with the given local name and belonging to the given namespace. Returns true if a child was removed.
Parameters:
name - the name of child element to remove
ns - Namespace to search within
Returns:
whether deletion occurred

removeChildren

public boolean removeChildren(String name)
This removes all child elements (one level deep) with the given local name and belonging to no namespace. Returns true if any were removed.
Parameters:
name - the name of child elements to remove
Returns:
whether deletion occurred

removeChildren

public boolean removeChildren(String name,
                              Namespace ns)
This removes all child elements (one level deep) with the given local name and belonging to the given namespace. Returns true if any were removed.
Parameters:
name - the name of child elements to remove
ns - Namespace to search within
Returns:
whether deletion occurred

removeContent

public List removeContent()
Removes all child content from this parent.
Specified by:
removeContent in interface Parent
Returns:
list of the old children detached from this parent

removeContent

public Content removeContent(int index)
Removes and returns the child at the given index, or returns null if there's no such child.
Specified by:
removeContent in interface Parent
Parameters:
index - index of child to remove
Returns:
detached child at given index or null if no

removeContent

public boolean removeContent(Content child)
Removes a single child node from the content list.
Specified by:
removeContent in interface Parent
Parameters:
child - child to remove
Returns:
whether the removal occurred

removeContent

public List removeContent(Filter filter)
Remove all child content from this parent matching the supplied filter.
Specified by:
removeContent in interface Parent
Parameters:
filter - filter to select which content to remove
Returns:
list of the old children detached from this parent

removeNamespaceDeclaration

public void removeNamespaceDeclaration(Namespace additionalNamespace)
Removes an additional namespace declarations from this element. This should not be used to remove the declaration for this element itself; that should be handled in the construction of the element. Instead, this is for removing namespace declarations on the element not relating directly to itself. If the declaration is not present, this method does nothing.
Parameters:
additionalNamespace - namespace to remove

setAttribute

public Element setAttribute(String name,
                            String value)
This sets an attribute value for this element. Any existing attribute with the same name and namespace URI is removed.
Parameters:
name - name of the attribute to set
value - value of the attribute to set
Returns:
this element modified

setAttribute

public Element setAttribute(String name,
                            String value,
                            Namespace ns)
This sets an attribute value for this element. Any existing attribute with the same name and namespace URI is removed.
Parameters:
name - name of the attribute to set
value - value of the attribute to set
ns - namespace of the attribute to set
Returns:
this element modified

setAttribute

public Element setAttribute(Attribute attribute)
This sets an attribute value for this element. Any existing attribute with the same name and namespace URI is removed.
Parameters:
attribute - Attribute to set
Returns:
this element modified

setAttributes

public Element setAttributes(List newAttributes)
This sets the attributes of the element. The supplied List should contain only objects of type Attribute.

When all objects in the supplied List are legal and before the new attributes are added, all old attributes will have their parentage set to null (no parent) and the old attribute list will be cleared. This has the effect that any active attribute list (previously obtained with a call to getAttributes()) will also change to reflect the new attributes. In addition, all attributes in the supplied List will have their parentage set to this element, but the List itself will not be "live" and further removals and additions will have no effect on this elements attributes. If the user wants to continue working with a "live" attribute list, then a call to setAttributes should be followed by a call to getAttributes() to obtain a "live" version of the attributes.

Passing a null or empty List clears the existing attributes.

In cases where the List contains duplicate attributes, only the last one will be retained. This has the same effect as calling setAttribute(Attribute) sequentially.

In event of an exception the original attributes will be unchanged and the attributes in the supplied attributes will be unaltered.

Parameters:
newAttributes - List of attributes to set
Returns:
this element modified

setContent

public Element setContent(Collection newContent)
This sets the content of the element. The supplied List should contain only objects of type Element, Text, CDATA, Comment, ProcessingInstruction, and EntityRef.

When all objects in the supplied List are legal and before the new content is added, all objects in the old content will have their parentage set to null (no parent) and the old content list will be cleared. This has the effect that any active list (previously obtained with a call to getContent or getChildren) will also change to reflect the new content. In addition, all objects in the supplied List will have their parentage set to this element, but the List itself will not be "live" and further removals and additions will have no effect on this elements content. If the user wants to continue working with a "live" list, then a call to setContent should be followed by a call to getContent or getChildren to obtain a "live" version of the content.

Passing a null or empty List clears the existing content.

In event of an exception the original content will be unchanged and the objects in the supplied content will be unaltered.

Parameters:
newContent - List of content to set
Returns:
this element modified

setContent

public Parent setContent(int index,
                         Collection collection)
Replace the child at the given index whith the supplied collection.

In event of an exception the original content will be unchanged and the content in the supplied collection will be unaltered.

Parameters:
index - - index of child to replace.
collection - - collection of content to add.
Returns:
object on which this method was invoked

setContent

public Element setContent(int index,
                          Content child)
Replace the current child the given index with the supplied child.

In event of an exception the original content will be unchanged and the supplied child will be unaltered.

Parameters:
index - - index of child to replace.
child - - child to add.
Returns:
element on which this method was invoked

setContent

public Element setContent(Content child)
Set this element's content to be the supplied child.

If the supplied child is legal content for this parent and before it is added, all content in the current content list will be cleared and all current children will have their parentage set to null.

This has the effect that any active list (previously obtained with a call to one of the getContent methods will also change to reflect the new content. In addition, all content in the supplied collection will have their parentage set to this parent. If the user wants to continue working with a "live" list of this parent's child, then a call to setContent should be followed by a call to one of the getContent methods to obtain a "live" version of the children.

Passing a null child clears the existing content.

In event of an exception the original content will be unchanged and the supplied child will be unaltered.

Parameters:
child - new content to replace existing content
Returns:
the parent on which the method was called

setName

public Element setName(String name)
Sets the (local) name of the element.
Parameters:
name - the new (local) name of the element
Returns:
the target element

setNamespace

public Element setNamespace(Namespace namespace)
Sets the element's Namespace. If the provided namespace is null, the element will have no namespace.
Parameters:
namespace - the new namespace
Returns:
the target element

setText

public Element setText(String text)
Sets the content of the element to be the text given. All existing text content and non-text context is removed. If this element should have both textual content and nested elements, use setContent instead. Setting a null text value is equivalent to setting an empty string value.
Parameters:
text - new text content for the element
Returns:
the target element

toString

public String toString()
Returns:
String - information about the Element

Copyright B) 2004 Jason Hunter, Brett McLaughlin. All Rights Reserved.