SAXParser: method startElement of DefaultHandler is never invoked

Question

Hallo,
I'm trying to parse following file: "<?xml version="1.0"?>
<company>
     <staff>
          <firstname>yong</firstname>
          <lastname>mook kim</lastname>
          <nickname>mkyong</nickname>
          <salary>100000</salary>
     </staff>
     <staff>
          <firstname>low</firstname>
          <lastname>yin fong</lastname>
          <nickname>fong fong</nickname>
          <salary>200000</salary>
     </staff>
</company>"
I'm using class SAXParser. I have extended the class DefaultHandler. The parser runs without errors but the method startElement of handler class is never invoked. The method endElement istead is invoked normally. I'm trying to run an example from url: http://www.mkyong.com/java/how-to-read-xml-file-in-java-sax-parser/. I don't know why is this, no exception is thrown while running.
with regards
Rafal Ziolkowski

Answer 1

The code comes from site: http://www.mkyong.com/java/how-to-read-xml-file-in-java-sax-parser/. An extraction:
     DefaultHandler handler = new DefaultHandler() {
     boolean bfname = false;
     boolean blname = false;
     boolean bnname = false;
     boolean bsalary = false;
     public void startElement(String uri, String localName,String qName,
Attributes attributes) throws SAXException {
          System.out.println("Start Element :" + qName);
          if (qName.equalsIgnoreCase("FIRSTNAME")) {
               bfname = true;
          if (qName.equalsIgnoreCase("LASTNAME")) {
               blname = true;
          if (qName.equalsIgnoreCase("NICKNAME")) {
               bnname = true;
          if (qName.equalsIgnoreCase("SALARY")) {
               bsalary = true;
I set breakpoint on line: System.out.println("Start Element :" + qName);
But program never stops there. The output don't show the result of this line.
Meanwhile I've tried to step into the parser-process and found at the class XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.java following code:
public boolean scanDocument(boolean complete)
throws IOException, XNIException {
// keep dispatching "events"
fEntityManager.setEntityHandler(this);
//System.out.println(" get Document Handler in NSDocumentHandler " + fDocumentHandler );
int event = next();
do {
switch (event) {
case XMLStreamConstants.START_DOCUMENT :
//fDocumentHandler.startDocument(fEntityManager.getEntityScanner(),fEntityManager.getEntityScanner().getVersion(),fNamespaceContext,null);// not able to get*
break;
case XMLStreamConstants.START_ELEMENT :
* //System.out.println(" in scann element");*
* //fDocumentHandler.startElement(getElementQName(),fAttributes,null);*
break;
case XMLStreamConstants.CHARACTERS :
fDocumentHandler.characters(getCharacterData(),null);
break;
the block for handling startElement is commented out!
To get the SAXParser class I use following code:
     SAXParserFactory factory = SAXParserFactory.newInstance();
     SAXParser saxParser = factory.newSAXParser();
perhaps I have to use more specific data for getting the instance of class SAXParser.
Rafal Ziolkowski