HI Can I add a child node to an Element Node with a name that exists

Question

HI,
Can I add a child node to an Element Node with a name that is already existing in the Element Node.
Let me explain what I need exactly.
My Existing element Node looks like this:
<form>
<name>
<FirstName></FirstName>
<LastName></LastName>
</name>
</form>
Can I add another child node with hte name 'FirstName' to the 'name' node ..?
I want to put a attribute rvsn with a value 1 for the original 'FirstName' element Node.
so the new Element Node should look like the foloowing:
<form>
<name>
<FirstName rvsn="1"></FirstName>
<FirstName></FirstName>
<LastName></LastName>
</name>
</form>
Hopefully this is valid XML !!
when I tried to use appendChild, it removed the previous node and put the new one. Thats what is the documentation also said.. I read it after I tried it :(
Anyway, ther should be another way to add a node like that.
Any hints, ideas will be of great help.
-Thanks in advance !!
Murthy

Answer 1

// this method will start marking the old values with a revision number.
     private void saveNodeDetails (Node node) {
String Content = "";
String nodeName = "";
int rvsn = getRvsn();
int type = node.getNodeType();
int tempRvsn = 0;
String tempNodeName = "";
String tempParentNodeName = "";
Node tempParentNode = null;
// check if element
if (type == Node.ELEMENT_NODE) {
Node traverseNode = node;
nodeName = getNodeName(traverseNode);
if (nodeName != null && nodeName.trim().length() > 1)
nodeName = nodeName.substring(0, nodeName.length() - 1);
if (_debug)
System.out.print("2. ELEMENT_NODE name## " + nodeName);
// if the element has no children, its leaf node.
// if its there in the Hashtble, then update the value from the hashtable.
if (reqParams.containsKey(nodeName)) {
if (_debug) System.out.println("3. Hash Value = " + reqParams.get(nodeName).toString());
if (traverseNode == null)
if (_debug) System.out.println("3A. traverseNode == null ");
if (node == null)
if (_debug) System.out.println("3B. node == null ::(((((");
// get the node children
NodeList children = node.getChildNodes();
// end of getting children for the Node.
if (_debug) System.out.println("4. Got ChildNodes ");
if (children != null) {
int length = 0;
length = children.getLength();
if (_debug) System.out.println("5. Got children Length = " + length);
if( ((Element) node).hasAttribute("rvsn") ){
System.out.println(" node has Attribute(rvsn) ");
tempRvsn = Integer.parseInt( ((Element) node).getAttribute("rvsn") );
if( tempRvsn == rvsn){
// user is changing the same data again and again.
// so remove the text node and append the new value as text node finally
for (int index = 0; index < length; index++) {
if (_debug) System.out.println("6. index = " + index);
if (_debug) System.out.println(index + ": children.item( index )@saveNodeDetails@ContainerDoc = " + children.item(index).getNodeType() + " -- " + children.item(index).getNodeValue());
if (children.item(index).getNodeType() == Node.TEXT_NODE)
node.removeChild(children.item(index));
}else{
int l= 0; // do not do any thing if the current node rvsn is different from the rvsn of the DOM
// programme logic could enter this part when ther are multiple revisions of the NODe in the DOM,
// and we are traversing through the previous versions of it.
} else{
System.out.println(" node has no Attribute(rvsn) ");
// the node has no rvsn attribute.
// it is the initial version of the dom.
// add the rvsn from the DOM to this NODE for the first time.
((Element) node).setAttribute("rvsn", (new Integer(rvsn)).toString() );
// get parent node and add a new child node with the same name as current node.
// so parent node will have the previous node with a rvsn and a new node without the rvsn !!
tempNodeName = node.getNodeName();
tempParentNode = node.getParentNode();
tempParentNodeName = tempParentNode.getNodeName();
System.out.println(" adding node: " + tempNodeName + " to : " + tempParentNodeName);
node = addNode(tempParentNode, tempNodeName, "");
getNodeName(node); // print the name of the node after modifying it !!!
printSiblings(node);
//System.out.println(" After adding the node : " + getNodeName(node));
} else if (_debug) {
System.out.println("7. Node name exist in the Hash but has no children to be removed..!!:: @saveNodeDetails ");
if (_debug) System.out.println("7B. Update the dom from the hash value " + nodeName + ", " + reqParams.get(nodeName).toString());
node.appendChild(document.createTextNode(reqParams.get(nodeName).toString()));
if (node != null) {
if ( ( (Element) node).hasAttribute("rvw"))
( (Element) node).removeAttribute("rvw");
if ( ( (Element) node).hasAttribute("msg"))
( (Element) node).removeAttribute("msg");
if ( ( (Element) node).hasAttribute("dor"))
( (Element) node).removeAttribute("dor");
}// end of if (type == Node.ELEMENT_NODE)
NodeList children = node.getChildNodes();
if (children != null) {
for (int i = 0; i < children.getLength(); i++) {
saveNodeDetails(children.item(i));
     } // end of saveNodeDetails method
public Node addNode(Node parentNode, String nodeName, String value){
Node newNode = null;
try{
newNode = parentNode.appendChild( document.createElement(nodeName) );
newNode.appendChild( document.createTextNode( value ) );
}catch(Exception Ex){
System.out.println("2. Exception@addNode@ContainerDoc = " + Ex);
return newNode ;
} // end of addNode method