XOM API for Processing XML with Java

[dirk bergstrom <dirk AT juniper.net>]

I recently discovered that I need to preserve whitespace in my xml config
files.  I dutifully added the following to my code (I like to be explicit):

serializer.setIndent(0);
serializer.setMaxLength(0);

And everything seemed right in the world.

That is, until I needed to diff a couple of files, and the diffs were
*huge*.  A ten character change made for a diff bigger than the file,
because the whole file was one long line.

I appreciate that whitespace has been scrupulously preserved, but the
document is no longer really human-readable.

My documents have no mixed content -- elements contain either text, or other
elements, but never both.  This means that adding a linebreak after each
close tag restores readability (and diff-ability).

I suspect that a large number of users will find themselves in a similar
situation to mine, needing to preserve whitespace inside tags, while keeping
the overall document legible.  It would be nice to have a convenience method
for this, something along the lines of setBreakAfterCloseTag(boolean).
Otherwise, you need to write a subclass like this:

private static class BreakingSerializer extends Serializer {
  public BreakingSerializer(OutputStream out, String encoding)
        throws UnsupportedEncodingException {
        super(out, encoding);
    }

    protected void writeCloseTag(Element element)
            throws IOException {
        super.writeCloseTag(element);
        breakLine();
    }

    protected void writeEmptyElementTag(Element element)
            throws IOException {
        super.writeEmptyElementTag(element);
        breakLine();
    }
}

I know that you're opposed to spurious convenience methods, but I think that
the effort required to implement the solution is sufficiently high (19
lines), that it would be worthwhile.

Thanks.

-- 
Dirk Bergstrom               dirk AT juniper.net
_____________________________________________
Juniper Networks Inc.,          Computer Geek
Tel: 408.745.3182           Fax: 408.745.8905