<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title>javax.xml.transform</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>This package defines the generic APIs for processing transformation instructions,
		and performing a transformation from source to result. These 
		interfaces have no dependencies on SAX or the DOM standard, and try to make as
		few assumptions as possible about the details of the source and result of a
		transformation. The API achieves this by defining 
		{@link javax.xml.transform.Source} and 
		{@link javax.xml.transform.Result} interfaces.</p>
<p>To define concrete classes for the user, the API defines specializations
		of the interfaces found at the root level. These interfaces are found in 
		{@link javax.xml.transform.sax}, {@link javax.xml.transform.dom},
		and {@link javax.xml.transform.stream}.</p> 
		
<h3>Creating Objects</h3> 
		
<p>The API allows a concrete 
		  {@link javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory} object to be created from
		  the static function 
		  {@link javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory#newInstance}. The
		  "javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory" system property determines which
		  factory implementation to instantiate. This property names a concrete subclass
		  of the TransformerFactory abstract class. If this system property is not
		  defined, a platform default is used.</p> 
	  
		
<h3>Specification of Inputs and Outputs</h3> 
		
<p>This API defines two interface objects called 
		  {@link javax.xml.transform.Source} and 
		  {@link javax.xml.transform.Result}. In order to pass Source and Result
		  objects to the interfaces, concrete classes must be used. The transformation API defines
		  three concrete representations for each of these objects: 
		  {@link javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamSource} and 
		  {@link javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamResult},
		  {@link javax.xml.transform.sax.SAXSource} and 
		  {@link javax.xml.transform.sax.SAXResult}, and 
		  {@link javax.xml.transform.dom.DOMSource} and 
		  {@link javax.xml.transform.dom.DOMResult}. Each of these objects defines
		  a FEATURE string (which is i the form of a URL), which can be passed into 
		  {@link javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory#getFeature} to see if the
		  given type of Source or Result object is supported. For instance, to test if a
		  DOMSource and a StreamResult is supported, you can apply the following
		  test.</p> 
		
<code>
<pre>    TransformerFactory tfactory = TransformerFactory.newInstance();

    if (tfactory.getFeature(DOMSource.FEATURE) &amp;&amp; tfactory.getFeature(StreamResult.FEATURE))
    {
       ...
    }</pre>
</code>
   
	 
<h3>
<a name="qname-delimiter">Qualified Name representation</a>
</h3> 
	 
<p>
<A href="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names">Namespaces</A>
		present something of a problem area when dealing with XML objects. Qualified
		Names appear in XML markup as prefixed names. But the prefixes themselves do
		not hold identity. Rather, it is the URIs that they contextually map to that
		hold the identity. Therefore, when passing a Qualified Name like "xyz:foo"
		among Java programs, one must provide a means to map "xyz" to a namespace.
		</p> 
	 
<p>One solution has been to create a "QName" object that holds the
		namespace URI, as well as the prefix and local name, but this is not always an
		optimal solution, as when, for example, you want to use unique strings as keys
		in a dictionary object. Not having a string representation also makes it
		difficult to specify a namespaced identity outside the context of an XML
		document.</p> 
	 
<p>In order to pass namespaced values to transformations, for instance
		as a set of properties to the Serializer, this specification defines that a
		String "qname" object parameter be passed as two-part string, the namespace URI
		enclosed in curly braces ({}), followed by the local name. If the qname has a
		null URI, then the String object only contains the local name. An application
		can safely check for a non-null URI by testing to see if the first character of
		the name is a '{' character.</p> 
	 
<p>For example, if a URI and local name were obtained from an element
		defined with &lt;xyz:foo xmlns:xyz="http://xyz.foo.com/yada/baz.html"/&gt;,
		then the transformation API Qualified Name would be "{http://xyz.foo.com/yada/baz.html}foo".
		Note that the prefix is lost.</p> 
   
	 
<h3>Result Tree Serialization</h3> 
	 
<p>Serialization of the result tree to a stream can be controlled with
		the {@link javax.xml.transform.Transformer#setOutputProperties} and the 
		{@link javax.xml.transform.Transformer#setOutputProperty} methods.
		Strings that match the <A href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt#output">XSLT
		specification for xsl:output attributes</A> can be referenced from the 
		{@link javax.xml.transform.OutputKeys} class. Other strings can be
		specified as well. If the transformer does not recognize an output key, a 
		{@link java.lang.IllegalArgumentException} is thrown, unless the 
		unless the key name is <A href="#qname-delimiter">namespace qualified</A>. Output key names that are
		qualified by a namespace are ignored or passed on to the serializer
		mechanism.</p> 
	 
<p>If all that is desired is the simple identity transformation of a
		source to a result, then {@link javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory}
		provides a
		{@link javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory#newTransformer()} method
		with no arguments. This method creates a Transformer that effectively copies
		the source to the result. This method may be used to create a DOM from SAX
		events or to create an XML or HTML stream from a DOM or SAX events.</p>
 
  
<h3>Exceptions and Error Reporting</h3> 
  
<p>The transformation API throws three types of specialized exceptions. A
	 {@link javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactoryConfigurationError} is parallel to
	 the {@link javax.xml.parsers.FactoryConfigurationError}, and is thrown
	 when a configuration problem with the TransformerFactory exists. This error
	 will typically be thrown when the transformation factory class specified with
	 the "javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory" system property cannot be found or
	 instantiated.</p> 
  
<p>A {@link javax.xml.transform.TransformerConfigurationException}
	 may be thrown if for any reason a Transformer can not be created. A
	 TransformerConfigurationException may be thrown if there is a syntax error in
	 the transformation instructions, for example when
	 {@link javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory#newTransformer} is
	 called.</p> 
  
<p>{@link javax.xml.transform.TransformerException} is a general
	 exception that occurs during the course of a transformation. A transformer
	 exception may wrap another exception, and if any of the
	 {@link javax.xml.transform.TransformerException#printStackTrace()}
	 methods are called on it, it will produce a list of stack dumps, starting from
	 the most recent. The transformer exception also provides a
	 {@link javax.xml.transform.SourceLocator} object which indicates where
	 in the source tree or transformation instructions the error occurred.
	 {@link javax.xml.transform.TransformerException#getMessageAndLocation()}
	 may be called to get an error message with location info, and
	 {@link javax.xml.transform.TransformerException#getLocationAsString()}
	 may be called to get just the location string.</p> 
  
<p>Transformation warnings and errors are normally first sent to a
	 {@link javax.xml.transform.ErrorListener}, at which point the
	 implementor may decide to report the error or warning, and may decide to throw
	 an exception for a non-fatal error. The error listener may be set via
	 {@link javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory#setErrorListener} for
	 reporting errors that have to do with syntax errors in the transformation
	 instructions, or via
	 {@link javax.xml.transform.Transformer#setErrorListener} to report
	 errors that occur during the transformation. The error listener on both objects
	 should always be valid and non-null, whether set by the user or a default
	 implementation provided by the processor.</p> 
 
  
<h3>Resolution of URIs within a transformation</h3> 
  
<p>The API provides a way for URIs referenced from within the stylesheet
	 instructions or within the transformation to be resolved by the calling
	 application. This can be done by creating a class that implements the
	 URIResolver interface, with its one method,
	 {@link javax.xml.transform.URIResolver#resolve}, and use this class to
	 set the URI resolution for the transformation instructions or transformation
	 with {@link javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory#setURIResolver} or
	 {@link javax.xml.transform.Transformer#setURIResolver}. The
	 URIResolver.resolve method takes two String arguments, the URI found in the
	 stylesheet instructions or built as part of the transformation process, and the
	 base URI in effect when the URI passed as the first argument was encountered.
	 The returned {@link javax.xml.transform.Source} object must be usable by
	 the transformer, as specified in its implemented features.</p> 

</body>
</html>