How do I convert a org.w3c.dom.Document object to a String?

Question

I want to convert a org.w3c.dom.Document object to a String. I\'m using Java 6 and am open to using any (completely free) technology that is up to the task. I tried the so

Answer 1

If you are ok to do transformation, you may try this.

DocumentBuilderFactory domFact = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
DocumentBuilder builder = domFact.newDocumentBuilder();
Document doc = builder.parse(st);
DOMSource domSource = new DOMSource(doc);
StringWriter writer = new StringWriter();
StreamResult result = new StreamResult(writer);
TransformerFactory tf = TransformerFactory.newInstance();
Transformer transformer = tf.newTransformer();
transformer.transform(domSource, result);
System.out.println("XML IN String format is: \n" + writer.toString());

Answer 2

This worked for me, as documented on this page:

TransformerFactory tf = TransformerFactory.newInstance();
Transformer trans = tf.newTransformer();
StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
trans.transform(new DOMSource(document), new StreamResult(sw));
return sw.toString();

Answer 3

A Scala version based on Zaz's answer.

  case class DocumentEx(document: Document) {
    def toXmlString(pretty: Boolean = false):Try[String] = {
      getStringFromDocument(document, pretty)
    }
  }

  implicit def documentToDocumentEx(document: Document):DocumentEx = {
    DocumentEx(document)
  }

  def getStringFromDocument(doc: Document, pretty:Boolean): Try[String] = {
    try
    {
      val domSource= new DOMSource(doc)
      val writer = new StringWriter()
      val result = new StreamResult(writer)
      val tf = TransformerFactory.newInstance()
      val transformer = tf.newTransformer()
      if (pretty)
        transformer.setOutputProperty(OutputKeys.INDENT, "yes")
      transformer.transform(domSource, result)
      Success(writer.toString);
    }
    catch {
      case ex: TransformerException =>
        Failure(ex)
    }
  }

With that, you can do either doc.toXmlString() or call the getStringFromDocument(doc) function.

Answer 4

use some thing like

import java.io.*;
import javax.xml.transform.*;
import javax.xml.transform.dom.*;
import javax.xml.transform.stream.*;

//method to convert Document to String
public String getStringFromDocument(Document doc)
{
    try
    {
       DOMSource domSource = new DOMSource(doc);
       StringWriter writer = new StringWriter();
       StreamResult result = new StreamResult(writer);
       TransformerFactory tf = TransformerFactory.newInstance();
       Transformer transformer = tf.newTransformer();
       transformer.transform(domSource, result);
       return writer.toString();
    }
    catch(TransformerException ex)
    {
       ex.printStackTrace();
       return null;
    }
}