XMLPullParser Tutorial
Android recommends to use XMLPullParser to parse the xml file than SAX and DOM because it is fast.
The org.xmlpull.v1.XmlPullParser interface provides the functionality to parse the XML document using XMLPullParser.
Events of XmlPullParser
The next() method of XMLPullParser moves the cursor pointer to the next event. Generally, we use four constants (works as the event) defined in the XMLPullParser interface.
START_TAG :An XML start tag was read.
TEXT :Text content was read; the text content can be retrieved using the getText() method.
END_TAG : An end tag was read.
END_DOCUMENT :No more events are available
Example of android XMLPullParser
activity_main.xml
Drag the one listview from the pallete. Now the activity_main.xml file will look like this:
File: activity_main.xml
xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
tools:context=".MainActivity" >
<ListView
android:id="@+id/listView1"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" >
</ListView>
</RelativeLayout>
xml document
Create an xml file named employees.xml inside the assets directory of your project.
File: employees.xml
<employees>
<employee>
<id>1</id>
<name>Sachin</name>
<salary>50000</salary>
</employee>
<employee>
<id>2</id>
<name>Nikhil</name>
<salary>60000</salary>
</employee>
</employees>
Employee class
Now create the Employee class that corresponds to the xml file.
File: Employee.java
public class Employee {
private int id;
private String name;
private float salary;
public int getId() {
return id;
}
public void setId(int id) {
this.id = id;
}
public String getName() {
return name;
}
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
public float getSalary() {
return salary;
}
public void setSalary(float salary) {
this.salary = salary;
}
@Override
public String toString() {
return " Id= "+id + "\n Name= " + name + "\n Salary= " + salary;
}
}
XMLPullParserHandler class
Now write the code to parse the xml file using XMLPullParser. Here, we are returning all the employee in list.
File: XMLPullParserHandler.java
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import org.xmlpull.v1.XmlPullParser;
import org.xmlpull.v1.XmlPullParserException;
import org.xmlpull.v1.XmlPullParserFactory;
public class XmlPullParserHandler {
private List<Employee> employees= new ArrayList<Employee>();
private Employee employee;
private String text;
public List<Employee> getEmployees() {
return employees;
}
public List<Employee> parse(InputStream is) {
try {
XmlPullParserFactory factory = XmlPullParserFactory.newInstance();
factory.setNamespaceAware(true);
XmlPullParser parser = factory.newPullParser();
parser.setInput(is, null);
int eventType = parser.getEventType();
while (eventType != XmlPullParser.END_DOCUMENT) {
String tagname = parser.getName();
switch (eventType) {
case XmlPullParser.START_TAG:
if (tagname.equalsIgnoreCase("employee")) {
// create a new instance of employee
employee = new Employee();
}
break;
case XmlPullParser.TEXT:
text = parser.getText();
break;
case XmlPullParser.END_TAG:
if (tagname.equalsIgnoreCase("employee")) {
// add employee object to list
employees.add(employee);
}else if (tagname.equalsIgnoreCase("id")) {
employee.setId(Integer.parseInt(text));
} else if (tagname.equalsIgnoreCase("name")) {
employee.setName(text);
} else if (tagname.equalsIgnoreCase("salary")) {
employee.setSalary(Float.parseFloat(text));
}
break;
default:
break;
}
eventType = parser.next();
}
} catch (XmlPullParserException e) {e.printStackTrace();}
catch (IOException e) {e.printStackTrace();}
return employees;
}
}
MainActivity class
Now, write the code to display the list data in the ListView.
File: MainActivity.java
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.util.List;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import android.widget.ListView;
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
ListView listView = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.listView1);
List<Employee> employees = null;
try {
XmlPullParserHandler parser = new XmlPullParserHandler();
InputStream is=getAssets().open("employees.xml");
employees = parser.parse(is);
ArrayAdapter<Employee> adapter =new ArrayAdapter<Employee>
(this,android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, employees);
listView.setAdapter(adapter);
} catch (IOException e) {e.printStackTrace();}
}
@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
// Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.activity_main, menu);
return true;
}
}
Output:
