« Posts under xml

Transforming XML into MS Excel XML

February 9, 2010 / posted in xml / No Comments

MS Excel understands XML?

If you need to export xml to a Microsoft Excel friendly format, you could stress over the HSSF (Horrible Spread Sheet Format, for the uninitiated) format with apache’s POI framework or you could transform your xml into an format Excel understands. This approach will allow you to decorate your cells with stylized fonts and borders; what it will not allow you to do is create or add complex objects like charts, graphs or pictures. This xml format is a watered down version of excel. If you require the ability to embed images, graphs…

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Java, XML and XStream

January 22, 2010 / posted in Java, Technobable, xml / 9 Comments

What’s an object/xml serializaing/deserializaing library?

If you’ve never worked with an object/xml serializer and are considering writing your own from scratch, you may want to consider using a library like XStream. XStream is very good at moving java into xml and back. It allows a high level of control over how the xml can be organized and structured and even allows the user to create their own converters for even more flexibility.

But still, why use something like this when you can be perfectly happy writing your own data conversion scheme? The problem really boils down to…

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5 ways to make XML more XPath friendly

January 19, 2010 / posted in Technobable, xml / No Comments

As java developers we should always do what we can to optimize outbound xml from our side of the fence. I mean, its our job to build and design awesome, elegant and efficient software whenever possible right? We have our data and we want to serialize it into xml, how can we make our xml as efficient and xpath friendly as possible?

1) Keep the structure simple

Consolidate data nodes whenever possible before marshaling your object into xml. You really don’t want to have to resort to using xpath for any unnecessary lookups across nodes. Keep those lookups confined to…

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Basic Ant scripts

January 13, 2010 / posted in Technobable, xml / No Comments

What’s an Ant script? Do I need bug spray?

Ant is a scripting tool commonly used to build, compile and deploy projects. This is in no way an all encompassing inventory of what Ant can do. It is extensible and its instructions are expressed in an xml format whose nodes comprise a framework of abilities designed to make menial tasks automated.

From a developer’s perspective, the most basic Ant tasks are the compile, package and copy tasks. All java projects must do these three things many, many, many times during a development cycle. Its very boring and tedious if you…

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All things XPath

January 10, 2010 / posted in Technobable, xml / No Comments

What’s XPath?

So XPath is really just a means of accessing data on xml nodes. XML has structure, with node and branches and attributes; XPath is the notation we use to express which nodes, branches or attributes we want to access. XSL makes use of this notation in order to change the structure and layout of an XML document. The process of changing one form of xml into another is called an XSL Transformation, or xslt for short.

The Basics!

If you’ve ever laid out a web page, YOU ALREADY KNOW XPATH! More specifically, if you have ever used…

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