Please help parse XML

Question

First, the a sample XML to be parsed:
<item name='HTMLContent_3'><richtext>
<pardef id='1' leftmargin='1in' rightmargin='100%' tabs='L0.5000in L1in L1.5000in L2in L2.5000in L3in L3.5000in L4in'/>
<par def='1'><p class="MsoBodyText">N.A.</p></par></richtext></item>This code is exported from a Lotus Domino database and represents a richtext field. I just want to export the text; in this case, that is the "N.A." and keep the line-breaks. Text formatting, bolding, etc. does not matter.
Some <item> nodes are very long, with multiple <pardef> and <par def='1'> elements. Also, in my text editor greater than and less than symbols around the paragraph tag is listed as "<" and ">" (but I doubt that's a factor in the parsing).
The <item> element is passed into the code sample below as Element e. I can get down to the <richtext> element with:
Node child = e.getFirstChild();Then I can get the <pardef> and <par> nodes with:
NodeList paragraphs = child.getChildNodes();But anything I try to get the text out of those nodes fails with a cast exception, prints out the XML, or doesn't do anything at all. Here is my current attempt:
public static String getLongCharDataFromRichtext(Element e) {
     String answer = "";
     Node child = e.getFirstChild();     // Should be the <richtext> element.
     NodeList paragraphs = child.getChildNodes();
     for (int i=0; i<paragraphs.getLength(); i++) {
//          String txt = paragraphs.item(i).toString();
//          System.out.println(txt);
//          answer += txt;
          Node paragraph = (Node)paragraphs.item(i);
          System.out.println(paragraph.toString());
//          if (paragraph.getNodeType() == 3) {   // node type 3 is text node.
//               String txt = paragraph.getNodeValue();
//               String txt = getCharacterDataFromElement(paragraph);
//               answer += txt;
     return answer;
}I've been stumped on this for a while so I really, really appreciate your help!.
-Jeff

Answer 1

OK. I get what you're saying (including the hint that maybe this should have gone in the "New to Java" forum <G>). But now I'm having a second problem. The XML parser does not recognize the paragraph tags as an extra node on the tree.
First, here is my current code:
public static String getLongCharDataFromElement(Element e) {
     String answer = "";
     Node child = e.getFirstChild();     // Should be the <richtext> element.
     NodeList paragraphs = child.getChildNodes();
     for (int i=0; i<paragraphs.getLength(); i++) {
          Node paragraph = (Node)paragraphs.item(i);
          if (paragraph.getNodeName().equalsIgnoreCase("par")) {
               Node theText = paragraph.getFirstChild();
               String val = theText.getNodeValue();
               System.out.println(val);
}When I print out val, it prints the entire text of the paragraph tag (including the tag). I can't get a child node and I can't cast it to an Element or do anything.
The XML parser I'm using is as follows:
File file = new File("Answers.dxl");
DocumentBuilder builder = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance().newDocumentBuilder();
Document doc = builder.parse(file);Why won't the parser recognize the paragraph tags as a new Node?
Thanks,
-Jeff