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This API includes types with accessors designed to get and set parts of the XML defined by the schema. But if you've compiled schema that includes <code>xs:any</code> particles, you may  have noticed that XMLBeans doesn't generate accessors for these these particles. </p><p>For example, imagine the accessors generated by compiling the following schema snippet: </p><div id="topictext"><pre>&lt;xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"    xmlns="http://xmlbeans.apache.org/samples/any"    targetNamespace="http://xmlbeans.apache.org/samples/any" elementFormDefault="qualified">    &lt;xs:element name="root">        &lt;xs:complexType>            &lt;xs:sequence>                &lt;xs:element ref="stringelement"/>                &lt;xs:any processContents="lax"/>                &lt;xs:element name="arrayofany">                    &lt;xs:complexType>                        &lt;xs:sequence>                            &lt;xs:any namespace="##any" processContents="lax" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>                        &lt;/xs:sequence>                    &lt;/xs:complexType>                &lt;/xs:element>            &lt;/xs:sequence>        &lt;/xs:complexType>    &lt;/xs:element>    &lt;xs:element name="stringelement" type="xs:string"/>        &lt;xs:complexType name="ListOfStrings">        &lt;xs:sequence>            &lt;xs:element ref="stringelement" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>        &lt;/xs:sequence>        &lt;xs:attribute name="id" type="xs:string"/>    &lt;/xs:complexType>&lt;/xs:schema></pre>    <p>After compilation, you'd have the follow methods for <code>Root</code>, the type that gives you access to the <code>&lt;root&gt;</code> element:</p>    <p><code>addNewArrayofany()</code></p>    <p><code>getArrayofany()</code></p>    <p><code>getStringelement()</code></p>    <p><code>setArrayofany(Arrayofany)</code></p>    <p><code>setStringelement(String)</code></p>    <p><code>xgetStringelement()</code></p>    <p><code>xsetStringelement(XmlString)</code></p>    <p>What's missing? There's no <code>getAny</code> or <code>setAny</code>. How do you get or set the <code>&lt;root&gt;</code> element's second child? As it turns out, you do this by leaving behind (at least for a moment) JavaBeans-style accessors, and picking up any of a number of tools the API provides. These tools include:</p>    <ul>        <li><a href="#using_cursors">Using <code>XmlCursor</code> instances</a> to &quot;walk&quot; the XML, handling elements cursor-style.</li>        <li><a href="#using_xpath">Using the <code>selectPath</code> method</a> to retrieve the XML you want via XPath.</li>        <li><a href="#using_selectchildren">Using the <code>selectChildren</code> method</a> to retrieve child elements by name.</li>        <li> <a href="#using_dom">Using the DOM API</a> to &quot;walk&quot; the node tree, handling elements by name.</li>    </ul>    <h2><a name="using_cursors"></a>Using Cursors to Add XML </h2>    <p>As described in <a href="conNavigatingXMLwithCursors.html">Navigating XML with Cursors</a>, with an <code>XmlCursor</code> instance you can traverse your XML instance's full infoset. A cursor views XML as tokens, and you move a cursor from one token to another as if they were cars in a train.</p>    <p>The following example illustrates how you might, in the course of building out the <code>&lt;root&gt;</code> document, create a  second child element <code>&lt;anyfoo&gt;</code> where schema specifies <code>xs:any</code>. You add the element by creating it with a cursor, then (in lieu of a setter) using the <code>XmlCursor.copyXml</code> or <code>XmlCursor.moveXml</code> method to put the element where it needs to go.</p>    <pre>// Start by creating a &lt;root> element that will contain// the children built by this code.RootDocument rootDoc = RootDocument.Factory.newInstance();RootDocument.Root root = rootDoc.addNewRoot();// Add the first element, &lt;stringelement>.root.setStringelement("some text");// Create an XmlObject in which to build the second// element in the sequence, &lt;anyfoo>. Here, the // XmlObject instance is simply a kind of incubator// for the XML. Later the XML will be moved into the// document this code is building.XmlObject anyFoo = XmlObject.Factory.newInstance();// Add a cursor to do the work of building the XML.XmlCursor anyFooCursor = anyFoo.newCursor();anyFooCursor.toNextToken();// Add the element in the schema's namespace, then add// element content.anyFooCursor.beginElement(new QName(m_namespaceUri, "anyfoo"));anyFooCursor.insertChars("some text");// Move the cursor back to the new element's top, where // it can grab all of the element's XML.anyFooCursor.toStartDoc();anyFooCursor.toNextToken();// Finally, move the XML into the &lt;root> document by moving it// from a position at one cursor to a position at// another.XmlCursor rootCursor = root.newCursor();rootCursor.toEndToken();anyFooCursor.moveXml(rootCursor);</pre>    <p>You might find that this build-and-move-cursor-to-cursor pattern is common when you're creating or moving XML when accessors aren't available. For example, you could do the same sort of thing when your schema defines a type that you want to place into an <code>xs:any</code> space in an instance. The following code adds a <code>&lt;stringelement&gt; </code>element as a child of the <code>&lt;arrayofany&gt;</code> element, which schema defines as containing a sequence of <code>xs:any</code> particles. The <code>&lt;stringlement&gt;</code> element is simple, but it could just as easily be a complex schema type.</p>    <pre>// Create a simple &lt;stringelement>.StringelementDocument stringElementDoc =     StringelementDocument.Factory.newInstance();        stringElementDoc.setStringelement("some text");XmlCursor stringElementCursor = stringElementDoc.newCursor();stringElementCursor.toFirstContentToken();// Add a cursor to mark the position to which the new child // XML will be moved.XmlCursor arrayCursor = arrayOfAny.newCursor();arrayCursor.toNextToken();// Move the new &lt;stringelement> into place.stringElementCursor.moveXml(arrayCursor);stringElementCursor.dispose();</pre>    <h2><a name="using_xpath"></a>Using XPath and the selectPath Method to Find XML </h2>    <p>XPath is a convenient, direct way to get at specific chunks of XML. In the XMLBeans API, you execute XPath expressions with the <code>XmlObject.selectPath</code> or <code>XmlCursor.selectPath</code> methods. The example in Java below assumes the following instance conforming to the schema introduced at the beginning of this topic:</p>    <pre>&lt;root xmlns="http://xmlbeans.apache.org/samples/any">    &lt;stringelement>some text&lt;/stringelement>    &lt;anyfoo>some text&lt;/anyfoo>    &lt;arrayofany>        &lt;stringelement>some text&lt;/stringelement>        &lt;someelement>            &lt;stringlist id="001">                &lt;stringelement>string1&lt;/stringelement>                &lt;stringelement>string2&lt;/stringelement>            &lt;/stringlist>        &lt;/someelement>    &lt;/arrayofany>&lt;/root></pre>    <p>The following code uses XPath to reach the <code>&lt;stringelement&gt;</code> element because there is no accessor available. It then shifts the XML around a little, moving <code>&lt;stringelement&gt;</code> up in the hierarchy to replace its parent, <code>&lt;someelement&gt;</code>. </p>    <pre>public boolean editExistingDocWithSelectPath(RootDocument rootDoc){    String namespaceUri = "http://xmlbeans.apache.org/samples/any";    // Put a cursor at the top of the &lt;arrayofany> element.    XmlCursor selectionCursor = rootDoc.getRoot().getArrayofany().newCursor();    // Use XPath and cursor movement to position the cursor at    // the &lt;stringlist> element.    String namespaceDecl = "declare namespace any='" + namespaceUri + "'; ";    selectionCursor.selectPath(namespaceDecl +         "$this//any:someelement/any:stringlist");    selectionCursor.toNextSelection();    // Create a new cursor at the same location and move it to     // &lt;stringelement&gt;'s &lt;someelement> parent.    XmlCursor editCursor = selectionCursor.newCursor();    editCursor.toParent();    // Move the &lt;stringelement> element to this position, displacing     // the &lt;someelement> downward. Remove the &lt;someelement> XML,     // effectively replacing &lt;someelement> with &lt;stringlist>.    selectionCursor.moveXml(editCursor);    editCursor.removeXml();    editCursor.dispose();    return rootDoc.validate();}</pre>    <h2><a name="using_selectchildren"></a>Using the selectChildren Method to Find XML </h2>    <p>The <code>XmlObject.selectChildren</code> method you can retrieve an array of the child elements of a specified name. The method is overloaded to take <code>java.xml.namespace.QName</code> instances or strings as parameters. The following code (based on the instance used in the preceding example) simply finds the <code>&lt;anyfoo&gt;</code> element, an <code>xs:any</code>, and replaces it with an <code>&lt;anybar&gt;</code> element. </p>    <pre>public boolean editExistingDocWithSelectChildren(RootDocument rootDoc){    String namespaceUri = "http://xmlbeans.apache.org/samples/any";    RootDocument.Root root = rootDoc.getRoot();            // Select the &lt;anyfoo> children of &lt;root>.    XmlObject[] stringElements =        root.selectChildren(new QName(m_namespaceUri, "anyfoo"));    // If the element is there, replace it with another element.    if (stringElements.length > 0)    {        XmlCursor editCursor = stringElements[0].newCursor();        editCursor.removeXml();        editCursor.beginElement(new QName(namespaceUri, "anybar"));        editCursor.insertChars("some other text");                        editCursor.dispose();    }    return rootDoc.validate();}</pre>    <h2><a name="using_dom"></a>Using the DOM API to Find XML </h2>    <p>Through the <code>getDomNode</code> method (exposed by <code>XmlObject</code> and types generated from schema), you can get a live DOM node representing your XML. For example, calling <code>myElement.getDomNode()</code> will return a <code>org.w3c.dom.Node</code> instance representing the XML bound to <code>myElement</code>. If you're already familiar with DOM-style access to XML, this can be a familiar alternative for handling <code>xs:any</code> instances.</p>    <p> Using the instance introduced earlier in this topic, the following example adds a new <code>&lt;bar&gt;</code> element between the first and second children of the <code>&lt;arrayofany&gt;</code> element. The code also ensures that the first and second children are <code>&lt;stringelement&gt;</code> and <code>&lt;someelement&gt;</code>, respectively.</p>    <pre>public boolean editExistingDocWithDOM(RootDocument rootDoc){    RootDocument.Root root = rootDoc.getRoot();            // Get the DOM nodes for the &lt;arrayofany> element's children.    Node arrayOfAnyNode = root.getArrayofany().getDomNode();    // You don't have get* accessors for any of the &lt;arrayofany>     // element's children, so use DOM to identify the first    // and second elements while looping through the child list.    NodeList childList = arrayOfAnyNode.getChildNodes();    Element firstElementChild = null;    Element secondElementChild = null;    // Find the first child element and make sure it's    // &lt;stringelement>.    for (int i = 0; i < childList.getLength(); i++)    {        Node node = childList.item(i);        if (node.getNodeType() == Node.ELEMENT_NODE)        {            if (node.getLocalName().equals("stringelement"))            {                firstElementChild = (Element)node;                                break;            }        }    }    if (firstElementChild == null) {return false;}    // Find the second child element and make sure it's    // &lt;someelement>.    Node node = firstElementChild.getNextSibling();    do 	{        if (node.getNodeType() == Node.ELEMENT_NODE)        {            if (node.getLocalName().equals("someelement"))            {                secondElementChild = (Element)node;                break;            }        }        node = node.getNextSibling();    } while (node != null);    if (secondElementChild == null) {return false;}        // Create and insert a new &lt;bar> element.    Element fooElement =         secondElementChild.getOwnerDocument().createElementNS("http://openuri.org","bar");    Node valueNode =         fooElement.getOwnerDocument().createTextNode("some text");    fooElement.appendChild(valueNode);    arrayOfAnyNode.insertBefore(fooElement, secondElementChild);        return rootDoc.validate();}</pre></div><div><h2>Related Topics</h2></div><p><a href="conGettingStartedwithXMLBeans.html">Getting Started with XMLBeans</a></p><!-- InstanceEndEditable --><script language="JavaScript"></script></body></html>