Devoxx 2009: Using XML with Java: Sploit for Choice?

19/11/2009, Michael Kay, Saxonica

Xml interfaces in java, from low level to high level

• SAX/Stax
  • high performance: +/- 40 MB/sec
  • low-level
  • SAX/Stax: comparable performance
  • use pipelines:
    • SAX: push
      • best for multiple output
    • Stax: pull:
      • best for multiple input
• DOM: tree based
  • don't use plain DOM, prefer JDOM, DOM4J or XOM – I once experienced problems with the XOM-handling of unicode characters
  • uses a lot of memory: +/- 5 times the document size
  • complex, tedious usage
• databinding: compile to / (un)marshall from java objects
  • like JAXB
  • fits for simple xml
  • not for complex xml or document xmls → create too much java classes
  • give 2 views on the same: xml <> java objects
• language support:
  • doesn't exist in Java...
  • scala: XQuery-like capabilities
• XSLT/XQuery
  • should be your default choice
  • good performance: +/- 10MB/sec
  • XSLT:
    • more for documents
    • transformations
    • richer functionality
  • XQuery:
    • more for data
    • xml-database
    • easier to optimize

Architectures

• prefer xml pipelines: (xproc pipelines)xml database → xquery → xslt → rest → xforms
• don't mix data: objects & xml