org.jdom
Class Element

java.lang.Object
  |
  +--org.jdom.Element

All Implemented Interfaces:

java.lang.Cloneable, java.io.Serializable

public class Element

extends java.lang.Object

implements java.io.Serializable, java.lang.Cloneable

Element defines behavior for an XML element, modeled in Java. Methods allow the user to obtain the value of the element's textual content, obtain its attributes, and get its children.

Version:

$Revision: 1.116 $, $Date: 2002/03/30 08:25:32 $

Author:

Brett McLaughlin, Jason Hunter, Lucas Gonze, Kevin Regan, Dan Schaffer, Yusuf Goolamabbas, Kent C. Johnson, Jools Enticknap, Alex Rosen, Bradley S. Huffman

See Also:

Serialized Form

Field Summary

protected java.util.List	additionalNamespaces Additional Namespace declarations on this element
protected org.jdom.AttributeList	attributes The attributes of the Element.
protected org.jdom.ContentList	content The mixed content of the Element.
protected java.lang.String	name The local name of the Element
protected Namespace	namespace The Namespace of the Element
protected java.lang.Object	parent Parent element, document, or null if none

Constructor Summary

protected	Element() This protected constructor is provided in order to support an Element subclass that wants full control over variable initialization.
	Element(java.lang.String name) This will create an Element in no Namespace.
	Element(java.lang.String name, Namespace namespace) This will create a new Element with the supplied (local) name, and define the Namespace to be used.
	Element(java.lang.String name, java.lang.String uri) This will create a new Element with the supplied (local) name, and specifies the URI of the Namespace the Element should be in, resulting it being unprefixed (in the default namespace).
	Element(java.lang.String name, java.lang.String prefix, java.lang.String uri) This will create a new Element with the supplied (local) name, and specifies the prefix and URI of the Namespace the Element should be in.

Method Summary

Element	addContent(CDATA cdata) This adds a CDATA section as content to this element.
Element	addContent(Comment comment) This adds a comment as content to this element.
Element	addContent(Element element) This adds element content to this element.
Element	addContent(EntityRef entity) This adds entity content to this element.
Element	addContent(ProcessingInstruction pi) This adds a processing instruction as content to this element.
Element	addContent(java.lang.String str) This adds text content to this element.
Element	addContent(Text text) This adds text content to this element.
void	addNamespaceDeclaration(Namespace additional) This will add a namespace declarations to this element.
java.lang.Object	clone() This returns a deep clone of this element.
Element	detach() This detaches the element from its parent, or does nothing if the element has no parent.
boolean	equals(java.lang.Object ob) This tests for equality of this Element to the supplied Object, explicitly using the == operator.
java.util.List	getAdditionalNamespaces() This will return any namespace declarations on this element that exist, excluding the namespace of the element itself, which can be obtained through getNamespace().
Attribute	getAttribute(java.lang.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(java.lang.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.
java.util.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.
java.lang.String	getAttributeValue(java.lang.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.
java.lang.String	getAttributeValue(java.lang.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.
java.lang.String	getAttributeValue(java.lang.String name, Namespace ns, java.lang.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.
java.lang.String	getAttributeValue(java.lang.String name, java.lang.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.
Element	getChild(java.lang.String name) This returns the first child element within this element with the given local name and belonging to no namespace.
Element	getChild(java.lang.String name, Namespace ns) This returns the first child element within this element with the given local name and belonging to the given namespace.
java.util.List	getChildren() This returns a List of all the child elements nested directly (one level deep) within this element, as Element objects.
java.util.List	getChildren(java.lang.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.
java.util.List	getChildren(java.lang.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.
java.lang.String	getChildText(java.lang.String name) This convenience method returns the textual content of the named child element, or returns an empty String ("") if the child has no textual content.
java.lang.String	getChildText(java.lang.String name, Namespace ns) This convenience method returns the textual content of the named child element, or returns null if there's no such child.
java.lang.String	getChildTextNormalize(java.lang.String name) This convenience method returns the normalized textual content of the named child element, or returns null if there's no such child.
java.lang.String	getChildTextNormalize(java.lang.String name, Namespace ns) This convenience method returns the normalized textual content of the named child element, or returns null if there's no such child.
java.lang.String	getChildTextTrim(java.lang.String name) This convenience method returns the trimmed textual content of the named child element, or returns null if there's no such child.
java.lang.String	getChildTextTrim(java.lang.String name, Namespace ns) This convenience method returns the trimmed textual content of the named child element, or returns null if there's no such child.
java.util.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.
java.util.List	getContent(Filter filter) Return a filter view of this Element's content.
Document	getDocument() This retrieves the owning Document for this Element, or null if not a currently a member of a Document.
java.lang.String	getName() This returns the (local) name of the Element, without any namespace prefix, if one exists.
Namespace	getNamespace() This will return this Element's Namespace.
Namespace	getNamespace(java.lang.String prefix) This returns the Namespace in scope on this element for the given prefix (this involves searching up the tree, so the results depend on the current location of the element).
java.lang.String	getNamespacePrefix() This returns the namespace prefix of the Element, if one exists.
java.lang.String	getNamespaceURI() This returns the URI mapped to this Element's prefix (or the default namespace if no prefix).
Element	getParent() This will return the parent of this Element.
java.lang.String	getQualifiedName() This returns the full name of the Element, in the form [namespacePrefix]:[localName].
java.lang.String	getText() This returns the textual content directly held under this element.
java.lang.String	getTextNormalize() This returns the textual content of this element with all surrounding whitespace removed and internal whitespace normalized to a single space.
java.lang.String	getTextTrim() This returns the textual content of this element with all surrounding whitespace removed.
boolean	hasChildren() Test whether this element has a child element.
int	hashCode() This returns the hash code for this Element.
boolean	isAncestor(Element element) Determines if this element is the ancestor of another element.
boolean	isRootElement() This returns a boolean value indicating whether this Element is a root Element for a JDOM Document.
boolean	removeAttribute(Attribute attribute) This removes the supplied Attribute should it exist.
boolean	removeAttribute(java.lang.String name) This removes the attribute with the given name and within no namespace.
boolean	removeAttribute(java.lang.String name, Namespace ns) This removes the attribute with the given name and within the given Namespace.
boolean	removeChild(java.lang.String name) This removes the first child element (one level deep) with the given local name and belonging to no namespace.
boolean	removeChild(java.lang.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() This removes all child elements.
boolean	removeChildren(java.lang.String name) This removes all child elements (one level deep) with the given local name and belonging to no namespace.
boolean	removeChildren(java.lang.String name, Namespace ns) This removes all child elements (one level deep) with the given local name and belonging to the given namespace.
boolean	removeContent(CDATA cdata) This removes the specified CDATA.
boolean	removeContent(Comment comment) This removes the specified Comment.
boolean	removeContent(Element element) This removes the specified Element.
boolean	removeContent(EntityRef entity) This removes the specified EntityRef.
boolean	removeContent(ProcessingInstruction pi) This removes the specified ProcessingInstruction.
boolean	removeContent(Text text) This removes the specified Text.
void	removeNamespaceDeclaration(Namespace additionalNamespace) This will remove a namespace declarations from this element.
Element	setAttribute(Attribute attribute) This sets an attribute value for this element.
Element	setAttribute(java.lang.String name, java.lang.String value) This sets an attribute value for this element.
Element	setAttribute(java.lang.String name, java.lang.String value, Namespace ns) This sets an attribute value for this element.
Element	setAttributes(java.util.List newAttributes) This sets the attributes of the element.
Element	setChildren(java.util.List children) This sets the content of the element the same as setContent(java.util.List), except only Element objects are allowed in the supplied list.
Element	setContent(java.util.List newContent) This sets the content of the element.
protected Element	setDocument(Document document) This sets the Document parent of this element and makes it the root element.
Element	setName(java.lang.String name) This sets the (local) name of the Element.
Element	setNamespace(Namespace namespace) This sets this Element's Namespace.
protected Element	setParent(Element parent) This will set the parent of this Element.
Element	setText(java.lang.String text) This sets the content of the element to be the text given.
java.lang.String	toString() This returns a String representation of the Element, suitable for debugging.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

finalize, getClass, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait

Field Detail

name

protected java.lang.String name

The local name of the Element

namespace

protected transient Namespace namespace

The Namespace of the Element

additionalNamespaces

protected transient java.util.List additionalNamespaces

Additional Namespace declarations on this element

parent

protected java.lang.Object parent

Parent element, document, or null if none

attributes

protected org.jdom.AttributeList attributes

The attributes of the Element.

content

protected org.jdom.ContentList content

The mixed content of the Element.

Constructor Detail

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(java.lang.String name,
               Namespace namespace)

This will create a new Element with the supplied (local) name, and define the Namespace to be used. If the provided namespace is null, the element will have no namespace.

Parameters:

name - String name of element.

namespace - Namespace to put element in.

Element

public Element(java.lang.String name)

This will create an Element in no Namespace.

Parameters:

name - String name of element.

Element

public Element(java.lang.String name,
               java.lang.String uri)

This will create a new Element with the supplied (local) name, and specifies the URI of the Namespace the Element should be in, resulting it being unprefixed (in the default namespace).

Parameters:

name - String name of element.

uri - String URI for Namespace element should be in.

Element

public Element(java.lang.String name,
               java.lang.String prefix,
               java.lang.String uri)

This will create a new Element with the supplied (local) name, and specifies the prefix and URI of the Namespace the Element should be in.

Parameters:

name - String name of element.

uri - String URI for Namespace element should be in.

Method Detail

getName

public java.lang.String getName()

This returns the (local) name of the Element, without any namespace prefix, if one exists.

Returns:

String - element name.

setName

public Element setName(java.lang.String name)

This sets the (local) name of the Element.

Returns:

Element - the element modified.

Throws:

IllegalNameException - if the given name is illegal as an Element name.

getNamespace

public Namespace getNamespace()

This will return this Element's Namespace.

Returns:

Namespace - Namespace object for this Element

setNamespace

public Element setNamespace(Namespace namespace)

This sets this Element's Namespace. If the provided namespace is null, the element will have no namespace.

Returns:

Element - the element modified.

getNamespacePrefix

public java.lang.String getNamespacePrefix()

This returns the namespace prefix of the Element, if one exists. Otherwise, an empty String is returned.

Returns:

String - namespace prefix.

getNamespaceURI

public java.lang.String getNamespaceURI()

This returns the URI mapped to this Element's prefix (or the default namespace if no prefix). If no mapping is found, an empty String is returned.

Returns:

String - namespace URI for this Element.

getNamespace

public Namespace getNamespace(java.lang.String prefix)

This returns the Namespace in scope on this element for the given prefix (this involves searching up the tree, so the results depend on the current location of the element). It 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:

Namespace - namespace in scope for the given prefix on this Element, or null if none.

getQualifiedName

public java.lang.String getQualifiedName()

This returns the full name of the Element, in the form [namespacePrefix]:[localName]. If no namespace prefix exists for the Element, simply the local name is returned.

Returns:

String - full name of element.

addNamespaceDeclaration

public void addNamespaceDeclaration(Namespace additional)

This will add 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.

Parameters:

additional - Namespace to add.

Throws:

IllegalAddException - if the namespace prefix collides with another namespace prefix on the element.

removeNamespaceDeclaration

public void removeNamespaceDeclaration(Namespace additionalNamespace)

This will remove a 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.

getAdditionalNamespaces

public java.util.List getAdditionalNamespaces()

This will return any namespace declarations on this element that exist, excluding the namespace of the element itself, which can be obtained through getNamespace(). If there are no additional declarations, this returns an empty list. Note, the returned list is not live, for performance reasons.

Returns:

List - the additional namespace declarations.

getParent

public Element getParent()

This will return the parent of this Element. If there is no parent, then this returns null. Also note that on its own, this is not 100% sufficient to see if the Element is not in use - this should be used in tandem with isRootElement() to determine this.

Returns:

parent of this Element.

setParent

protected Element setParent(Element parent)

This will set the parent of this Element. The caller is responsible for handling pre-existing parentage.

Parameters:

parent - Element to be new parent.

Returns:

Element - this Element modified.

detach

public Element detach()

This detaches the element from its parent, or does nothing if the element has no parent.

Returns:

Element - this Element modified.

isRootElement

public boolean isRootElement()

This returns a boolean value indicating whether this Element is a root Element for a JDOM Document. This should be used in tandem with getParent() to determine if an Element has no "attachments" to parents.

Returns:

boolean - whether this is a root element.

setDocument

protected Element setDocument(Document document)

This sets the Document parent of this element and makes it the root element. The caller is responsible for ensuring the element doesn't have a pre-existing parent.

Parameters:

document - Document parent

Returns:

Document this Element modified

getDocument

public Document getDocument()

This retrieves the owning Document for this Element, or null if not a currently a member of a Document.

Returns:

Document owning this Element, or null.

getText

public java.lang.String getText()

This returns the textual content directly held under this element. This will include 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

getTextTrim

public java.lang.String getTextTrim()

This 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

getTextNormalize

public java.lang.String getTextNormalize()

This 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

getChildText

public java.lang.String getChildText(java.lang.String name)

This convenience method returns the textual content of the named child element, or returns an empty String ("") if the child has no textual content. However, if the child does not exist, null is returned.

Parameters:

name - the name of the child

Returns:

text content for the named child, or null if none

getChildTextTrim

public java.lang.String getChildTextTrim(java.lang.String name)

This convenience method returns the trimmed textual content of the named child element, or returns null if there's no such child. See getTextTrim() for details of text trimming.

Parameters:

name - the name of the child

Returns:

trimmed text content for the named child, or null if none

getChildTextNormalize

public java.lang.String getChildTextNormalize(java.lang.String name)

This convenience method returns the normalized textual content of the named child element, or returns null if there's no such child. See getTextNormalize() for details of text normalizing.

Parameters:

name - the name of the child

Returns:

normalized text content for the named child, or null if none

getChildText

public java.lang.String getChildText(java.lang.String name,
                                     Namespace ns)

This convenience method returns the textual content of the named child element, or returns 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 none

getChildTextTrim

public java.lang.String getChildTextTrim(java.lang.String name,
                                         Namespace ns)

This convenience method returns the trimmed textual content of the named child element, or returns null if there's no such child. See getTextTrim() for details of text trimming.

Parameters:

name - the name of the child

ns - the namespace of the child

Returns:

trimmed text content for the named child, or null if none

getChildTextNormalize

public java.lang.String getChildTextNormalize(java.lang.String name,
                                              Namespace ns)

This convenience method returns the normalized textual content of the named child element, or returns null if there's no such child. See getTextNormalize() for details of text normalizing.

Parameters:

name - the name of the child

ns - the namespace of the child

Returns:

normalized text content for the named child, or null if none

setText

public Element setText(java.lang.String text)

This 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(java.util.List) instead. Setting a null text value is equivalent to setting an empty string value.

Parameters:

text - new content for the element

Returns:

this element modified

getContent

public java.util.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.

Returns:

a List containing the mixed content of the element: may contain Text, Element, Comment, ProcessingInstruction, CDATA, and EntityRef objects.

getContent

public java.util.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.

Parameters:

filter - Filter to apply

Returns:

List - filtered Element content

setContent

public Element setContent(java.util.List 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

Throws:

IllegalAddException - if the List contains objects of illegal types.

hasChildren

public boolean hasChildren()

Test whether this element has a child element. This method can be used before a call to getContent(), which always creates a "live" list, to improve performance.

Returns:

true if this element has at least one child element

getChildren

public java.util.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

setChildren

public Element setChildren(java.util.List children)

This sets the content of the element the same as setContent(java.util.List), except only Element objects are allowed in the supplied list.

Parameters:

children - List of Element objects to add

Returns:

this element modified

getChildren

public java.util.List getChildren(java.lang.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 java.util.List getChildren(java.lang.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

getChild

public Element getChild(java.lang.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

getChild

public Element getChild(java.lang.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

addContent

public Element addContent(java.lang.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(Text text)

This adds text content to this element. It does not replace the existing content as does setText().

Parameters:

text - Text to add

Returns:

this element modified

addContent

public Element addContent(CDATA cdata)

This adds a CDATA section as content to this element.

Parameters:

cdata - CDATA to add

Returns:

this element modified

addContent

public Element addContent(Element element)

This adds element content to this element.

Parameters:

element - Element to add

Returns:

this element modified

Throws:

IllegalAddException - if the element you're attempting to add already has a parent element, or if you're attempting to add it as a descendent of itself (which would result in a recursive element definition!).

addContent

public Element addContent(ProcessingInstruction pi)

This adds a processing instruction as content to this element.

Parameters:

pi - ProcessingInstruction to add

Returns:

this element modified

Throws:

IllegalAddException - if the given processing instruction, pi, already has a parent.

addContent

public Element addContent(EntityRef entity)

This adds entity content to this element.

Parameters:

entity - EntityRef to add

Returns:

this element modified

Throws:

IllegalAddException - if the given EntityRef already has a parent.

addContent

public Element addContent(Comment comment)

This adds a comment as content to this element.

Parameters:

comment - Comment to add

Returns:

this element modified

Throws:

IllegalAddException - if the given Comment already has a parent.

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

removeChild

public boolean removeChild(java.lang.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(java.lang.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(java.lang.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(java.lang.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

removeChildren

public boolean removeChildren()

This removes all child elements. Returns true if any were removed.

Returns:

whether deletion occurred

getAttributes

public java.util.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

getAttribute

public Attribute getAttribute(java.lang.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(java.lang.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 java.lang.String getAttributeValue(java.lang.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 java.lang.String getAttributeValue(java.lang.String name,
                                          Namespace ns,
                                          java.lang.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

getAttributeValue

public java.lang.String getAttributeValue(java.lang.String name,
                                          java.lang.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 java.lang.String getAttributeValue(java.lang.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

setAttributes

public Element setAttributes(java.util.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:

attributes - List of attributes to set

Returns:

this element modified

Throws:

IllegalAddException - if the List contains objects of illegal types.

setAttribute

public Element setAttribute(java.lang.String name,
                            java.lang.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(java.lang.String name,
                            java.lang.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

Throws:

IllegalAddException - if the attribute being added already has a parent or if the attribute namespace prefix collides with another namespace prefix on the element.

removeAttribute

public boolean removeAttribute(java.lang.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(java.lang.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

removeContent

public boolean removeContent(Element element)

This removes the specified Element. If the specified Element is not a child of this Element, this method does nothing.

Parameters:

child - Element to delete

Returns:

whether deletion occurred

removeContent

public boolean removeContent(ProcessingInstruction pi)

This removes the specified ProcessingInstruction. If the specified ProcessingInstruction is not a child of this Element, this method does nothing.

Parameters:

child - ProcessingInstruction to delete

Returns:

whether deletion occurred

removeContent

public boolean removeContent(Comment comment)

This removes the specified Comment. If the specified Comment is not a child of this Element, this method does nothing.

Parameters:

comment - Comment to delete

Returns:

whether deletion occurred

removeContent

public boolean removeContent(CDATA cdata)

This removes the specified CDATA. If the specified CDATA is not a child of this Element, this method does nothing.

Parameters:

cdata - CDATA to delete

Returns:

whether deletion occurred

removeContent

public boolean removeContent(Text text)

This removes the specified Text. If the specified Text is not a child of this Element, this method does nothing.

Parameters:

text - Text to delete

Returns:

whether deletion occurred

removeContent

public boolean removeContent(EntityRef entity)

This removes the specified EntityRef. If the specified EntityRef is not a child of this Element, this method does nothing.

Parameters:

child - EntityRef to delete

Returns:

whether deletion occurred

toString

public java.lang.String toString()

This returns a String representation of the Element, suitable for debugging. If the XML representation of the Element is desired, XMLOutputter.outputString(Element) should be used.

Overrides:

toString in class java.lang.Object

Returns:

String - information about the Element

equals

public final boolean equals(java.lang.Object ob)

This tests for equality of this Element to the supplied Object, explicitly using the == operator.

Overrides:

equals in class java.lang.Object

Parameters:

ob - Object to compare to

Returns:

whether the elements are equal

hashCode

public final int hashCode()

This returns the hash code for this Element.

Overrides:

hashCode in class java.lang.Object

Returns:

inherited hash code

clone

public java.lang.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.

Overrides:

clone in class java.lang.Object

Returns:

the clone of this element