org.jdom

Class Element

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 $

Author: 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 ListadditionalNamespaces
Additional namespace declarations to store on this element; useful during output
protected Stringname
The local name of the element
protected Namespacenamespace
The namespace of the element
Constructor Summary
protected Element()
This protected constructor is provided in order to support an Element subclass that wants full control over variable initialization.
Element(String name, Namespace namespace)
Creates a new element with the supplied (local) name and namespace.
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.
Method Summary
ElementaddContent(String str)
This adds text content to this element.
ElementaddContent(Content child)
Appends the child to the end of the element's content list.
ElementaddContent(Collection collection)
Appends all children in the given collection to the end of the content list.
ElementaddContent(int index, Content child)
Inserts the child into the content list at the given index.
ElementaddContent(int index, Collection c)
Inserts the content in a collection into the content list at the given index.
voidaddNamespaceDeclaration(Namespace additional)
Adds a namespace declarations to this element.
Objectclone()

This returns a deep clone of this element.

ListcloneContent()
ListgetAdditionalNamespaces()
Returns a list of the additional namespace declarations on this element.
AttributegetAttribute(String name)

This returns the attribute for this element with the given name and within no namespace, or null if no such attribute exists.

AttributegetAttribute(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.

ListgetAttributes()

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.

StringgetAttributeValue(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.

StringgetAttributeValue(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.

StringgetAttributeValue(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.

StringgetAttributeValue(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.

ElementgetChild(String name, Namespace ns)
This returns the first child element within this element with the given local name and belonging to the given namespace.
ElementgetChild(String name)
This returns the first child element within this element with the given local name and belonging to no namespace.
ListgetChildren()
This returns a List of all the child elements nested directly (one level deep) within this element, as Element objects.
ListgetChildren(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.
ListgetChildren(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.
StringgetChildText(String name)
Returns the textual content of the named child element, or null if there's no such child.
StringgetChildText(String name, Namespace ns)
Returns the textual content of the named child element, or null if there's no such child.
StringgetChildTextNormalize(String name)
Returns the normalized textual content of the named child element, or null if there's no such child.
StringgetChildTextNormalize(String name, Namespace ns)
Returns the normalized textual content of the named child element, or null if there's no such child.
StringgetChildTextTrim(String name)
Returns the trimmed textual content of the named child element, or null if there's no such child.
StringgetChildTextTrim(String name, Namespace ns)
Returns the trimmed textual content of the named child element, or null if there's no such child.
ListgetContent()
This returns the full content of the element as a List which may contain objects of type Text, Element, Comment, ProcessingInstruction, CDATA, and EntityRef.
ListgetContent(Filter filter)
Return a filter view of this Element's content.
ContentgetContent(int index)
intgetContentSize()
IteratorgetDescendants()
Returns an iterator that walks over all descendants in document order.
IteratorgetDescendants(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.
StringgetName()
Returns the (local) name of the element (without any namespace prefix).
NamespacegetNamespace()
Returns the element's {@link Namespace}.
NamespacegetNamespace(String prefix)
Returns the {@link Namespace} corresponding to the given prefix in scope for this element.
StringgetNamespacePrefix()
Returns the namespace prefix of the element or an empty string if none exists.
StringgetNamespaceURI()
Returns the namespace URI mapped to this element's prefix (or the in-scope default namespace URI if no prefix).
StringgetQualifiedName()
Returns the full name of the element, in the form [namespacePrefix]:[localName].
StringgetText()
Returns the textual content directly held under this element as a string.
StringgetTextNormalize()
Returns the textual content of this element with all surrounding whitespace removed and internal whitespace normalized to a single space.
StringgetTextTrim()
Returns the textual content of this element with all surrounding whitespace removed.
StringgetValue()
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.)
intindexOf(Content child)
booleanisAncestor(Element element)
Determines if this element is the ancestor of another element.
booleanisRootElement()
Returns whether this element is a root element.
booleanremoveAttribute(String name)

This removes the attribute with the given name and within no namespace.

booleanremoveAttribute(String name, Namespace ns)

This removes the attribute with the given name and within the given Namespace.

booleanremoveAttribute(Attribute attribute)

This removes the supplied Attribute should it exist.

booleanremoveChild(String name)

This removes the first child element (one level deep) with the given local name and belonging to no namespace.

booleanremoveChild(String name, Namespace ns)

This removes the first child element (one level deep) with the given local name and belonging to the given namespace.

booleanremoveChildren(String name)

This removes all child elements (one level deep) with the given local name and belonging to no namespace.

booleanremoveChildren(String name, Namespace ns)

This removes all child elements (one level deep) with the given local name and belonging to the given namespace.

ListremoveContent()
Removes all child content from this parent.
ListremoveContent(Filter filter)
Remove all child content from this parent matching the supplied filter.
booleanremoveContent(Content child)
ContentremoveContent(int index)
voidremoveNamespaceDeclaration(Namespace additionalNamespace)
Removes an additional namespace declarations from this element.
ElementsetAttribute(String name, String value)

This sets an attribute value for this element.

ElementsetAttribute(String name, String value, Namespace ns)

This sets an attribute value for this element.

ElementsetAttribute(Attribute attribute)

This sets an attribute value for this element.

ElementsetAttributes(List newAttributes)

This sets the attributes of the element.

ElementsetContent(Collection newContent)
This sets the content of the element.
ElementsetContent(int index, Content child)
Replace the current child the given index with the supplied child.
ParentsetContent(int index, Collection collection)
Replace the child at the given index whith the supplied collection.
ElementsetContent(Content child)
Set this element's content to be the supplied child.
ElementsetName(String name)
Sets the (local) name of the element.
ElementsetNamespace(Namespace namespace)
Sets the element's {@link Namespace}.
ElementsetText(String text)
Sets the content of the element to be the text given.
StringtoString()

This returns a String representation of the Element, suitable for debugging.

Field Detail

additionalNamespaces

protected transient 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 transient Namespace namespace
The namespace 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(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

Throws: IllegalNameException if the given name is illegal as an element name

Element

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

Parameters: name local name of the element

Throws: IllegalNameException if the given name is illegal as an element name.

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

Throws: IllegalNameException if the given name is illegal as an element name or the given URI is illegal as a namespace URI

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

Throws: IllegalNameException if the given name is illegal as an element name, the given prefix is illegal as a namespace prefix, or the given URI is illegal as a namespace URI

Method Detail

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

Throws: IllegalDataException if str contains an illegal character such as a vertical tab (as determined by {@link org.jdom.Verifier#checkCharacterData})

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

Throws: IllegalAddException if the given child already has a parent.

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

Throws: IllegalAddException if any item in the collection already has a parent or is of an inappropriate type.

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

Throws: IndexOutOfBoundsException if index is negative or beyond the current number of children IllegalAddException if the given child already has a parent.

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

Throws: IndexOutOfBoundsException if index is negative or beyond the current number of children IllegalAddException if any item in the collection already has a parent or is of an inappropriate type.

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

Throws: IllegalAddException if the namespace prefix collides with another namespace prefix on the element

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.

Returns: the clone of this element

cloneContent

public List cloneContent()

getAdditionalNamespaces

public List getAdditionalNamespaces()
Returns a list of the additional namespace declarations on this element. This includes only additional namespace, not the namespace of the element itself, which can be obtained through {@link #getNamespace()}. If there are no additional declarations, this returns an empty list. Note, the returned list is unmodifiable.

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

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

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

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

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

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 {@link #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 {@link #getChildren} for a code example.

Parameters: name local name for the children to match ns Namespace to search within

Returns: all matching child elements

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)
Returns the normalized textual content of the named child element, or null if there's no such child. See {@link #getTextNormalize()} for details of text normalizing.

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)
Returns the trimmed textual content of the named child element, or null if there's no such child. See {@link #getTextTrim()} for details of text trimming.

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

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.

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

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.

Parameters: filter Filter to apply

Returns: List - filtered Element content

getContent

public Content getContent(int index)

getContentSize

public int getContentSize()

getDescendants

public Iterator getDescendants()
Returns an iterator that walks over all descendants in document order.

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.

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 {@link Namespace}.

Returns: the element's namespace

getNamespace

public Namespace getNamespace(String prefix)
Returns the {@link 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 {@link Text} and {@link CDATA} nodes returned by {@link #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.)

Returns: a concatentation of all text node descendants

indexOf

public int indexOf(Content child)

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 {@link #getParent} 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.

Returns: list of the old children detached from this parent

removeContent

public List removeContent(Filter filter)
Remove all child content from this parent matching the supplied filter.

Parameters: filter filter to select which content to remove

Returns: list of the old children detached from this parent

removeContent

public boolean removeContent(Content child)

removeContent

public Content removeContent(int index)

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

Throws: IllegalNameException if the given name is illegal as an attribute name. IllegalDataException if the given attribute value is illegal character data (as determined by {@link org.jdom.Verifier#checkCharacterData}).

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

Throws: IllegalNameException if the given name is illegal as an attribute name, or if the namespace is an unprefixed default namespace IllegalDataException if the given attribute value is illegal character data (as determined by {@link org.jdom.Verifier#checkCharacterData}). IllegalAddException if the attribute namespace prefix collides with another namespace prefix on the element.

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.

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 {@link #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 {@link #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 {@link #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

Throws: IllegalAddException if the List contains objects that are not instances of Attribute, or if any of the Attribute objects have conflicting namespace prefixes.

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 {@link #getContent} or {@link #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 {@link #getContent} or {@link #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 or with existing parentage.

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

Throws: IllegalAddException if the supplied child is already attached or not legal content for this parent. IndexOutOfBoundsException if index is negative or greater than the current number of children.

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

Throws: IllegalAddException if the collection contains objects of illegal types. IndexOutOfBoundsException if index is negative or greater than the current number of children.

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 {@link #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 {@link #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

Throws: IllegalAddException if the supplied child is already attached or not legal content for an Element

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

Throws: IllegalNameException if the given name is illegal as an Element name

setNamespace

public Element setNamespace(Namespace namespace)
Sets the element's {@link 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 {@link #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

Throws: IllegalDataException if the assigned text contains an illegal character such as a vertical tab (as determined by {@link org.jdom.Verifier#checkCharacterData})

toString

public String toString()

This returns a String representation of the Element, suitable for debugging. If the XML representation of the Element is desired, {@link org.jdom.output.XMLOutputter#outputString(Element)} should be used.

Returns: String - information about the Element

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