XOM API for Processing XML with Java

[Steve Loughran <steve.loughran AT gmail.com>]

Hello,

I have a java program that works with XML, using Xom. To make that
work easier, I have various java classes that work with the Xom nodes,
e.g.

class PropertyList {
 Element element;
 ....

}

At the same time, I am working with the classes at the XML level,
manipulating elements, which makes it very hard of me to map from xom
Nodes to my wrapper classes. I end up having to effectively rebuild
first the doc tree, then rebuild my wrapper classes by walking the Xom
tree again.

    private PropertyList replaceNode(PropertyList target, List<Node>
newChildren)
            throws CdlXmlParsingException {
        //copy the target element
        Element newElement = (Element) target.getNode().copy();
        //strip its children away
        newElement.removeChildren();
        //add the new ones in order
        for (Node sprog : newChildren) {
            sprog.detach();
            newElement.appendChild(sprog);
        }
        //here we have our new element, ready to go
        PropertyList resultTemplate = new PropertyList(newElement);
        return resultTemplate;
    }

It seems to me, that a more effective solution would be trivial were
every Xom node to have an Object data; element at the end that would
let me store a back pointer. The alternative would be to hide a back
pointer inside a attribute (@impl:owner="0xfeedf00d" , but that not
only alters the document, it is hard to do in Java, given that
pointers are hidden.

Is there some obvious solution I am missing?

-steve