XOM API for Processing XML with Java

[Wolfgang Hoschek <whoschek AT lbl.gov>]

Is there a known work-around for the fact that 
DocType.setInternalDTDSubset is not public?

The javadoc says:

> The internal DTD subset is read-only.
>  *   XOM fills it in when a document is read by a parser.
>  *   However, it cannot be changed, because XOM cannot
>  *   currently check that an internal DTD subset is well-formed.
>  *   This restriction may be relaxed in a future version.

I need some way to create a DocType object with the same internal 
subset that I obtain with DocType.getInternalDTDSubset().

The use case is as follows: I'm reading all four strings of a DocType 
with getXYZ(), then write them to a file or database for persistent 
storage. Sometime later I need to reconstitute the very same DocType by 
reading those four strings from the file (or database), then 
constructing a new DocType and filling in the very same four string 
values. This is all part of a custom serialization/deserialization 
scheme.

Note that the usecase always fills in what it previously got from 
DocType.getInternalDTDSubset(), not some arbitrary other string. Hence 
there are no well-formedness issues here.

Also not that the ugly work-around involving parsing a fake string 
document with the embedded doctype is not viable: the parse will try to 
resolve references in the subset, an typically fail here.

I understand the reasoning for not making the method public, but 
perhaps it would be viable to make DocType.setInternalDTDSubset() 
protected, or make the internal private variable protected so custom 
subclasses can set it. My impression is that this would work fine, 
especially if there would be a note in the javadoc saying that one 
should only use this method if it is known that the supplied internal 
subset is conformant.

Finally note that Builder is a first-class citizen because it may use 
the package-protected setInternalDTDSubset, while everybody else is a 
second-class citizen, essentially precluding custom general-purpose 
serialization mechanisms to be expressed on top of XOM...

Thanks,
Wolfgang.