Setting up default toString() in xml schema

Question

I have an xml schema and xml file that contains info for an app I created. Inside of the app, I load the objects into a combo box for the user to select an item. I want the actual objects in the combo box to access the data directly.
Because of the nature of the combo box, it uses toString() for the actual display. In this case I have to modify the impl code to add in a toString() function for this to work correctly, and not give me the name of the object.
Is there away to setup the xsd file to default one the attributes in the xml file to be returned with toString()?
Example:
  <xsd:element name="JFeatsList" type="JFeatsType"/>
  <xsd:complexType name="JFeatsType">
    <xsd:sequence>
      <xsd:element name="JFeatItem" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded">
        <xsd:complexType>
            <xsd:attribute name="FeatName" type="xsd:string"/>
            <xsd:attribute name="FeatType" type="xsd:string"/>
            <xsd:attribute name="Notes" type="xsd:string"/>
        </xsd:complexType>
      </xsd:element>
    </xsd:sequence>
  </xsd:complexType>
...I want the FeatName to be sent back with a toString() call.
Thanks,
Mike

Answer 1

I'm an XML newbie myself, so I've probably just finished reinventing some wheels, but in any case, I've written some code that makes reading XML pretty easy.
Here are some useful links:
http://java.sun.com/webservices/docs/1.0/tutorial/index.html
http://java.sun.com/webservices/download.html
http://java.sun.com/webservices/downloads/webservicespack.html
The latter contains C:\jwsdp-1_0_01\samples\jaxp\DOMEcho\DOMEcho.java, which creates a DOM from the XML file, and then traverses the DOM tree. For example, if I want to read the "Company motto" from my XML file:  <GUIconstants>
    <!-- Company motto
    -->
    <MOTTO value=""There's a sucker born every minute!""/>
    <!-- ComboBox mappings; can be any of DatabaseFieldDefinitions (and if you
         really, really, really don't want so many choices, you can completely
         remove the "combo_3" entry, for example).
      0 - ORIGIN_COLUMN       -> Origin airport    (ex. alternative: TIME_COLUMN)
      1 - DESTINATION_COLUMN  -> Destination airport (or: FLIGHT_NUMBER)
      2 - CARRIER_COLUMN      -> Carrier             (or: DAY_COLUMN)
      3 - FOSTERS_BEER_COLUMN -> pROGRAMMING pRODUCTIVITY aID
    -->
    <ComboBox_DatabaseField_Mappings
      combo_0="ORIGIN_COLUMN"
      combo_1="DESTINATION_COLUMN"
      combo_2="CARRIER_COLUMN"
      combo_3="DAY_COLUMN">
    </ComboBox_DatabaseField_Mappings>I have some code like:case Node.ELEMENT_NODE:
  category += "." + node.getNodeName();
  String temp = category;
  if (temp.startsWith(".FBNconfiguration")) {
    temp = temp.substring(".FBNconfiguration".length());
    // FBNconfiguration.GUIconstants
    else if (temp.startsWith(".GUIconstants")) {
      temp = temp.substring(".GUIconstants".length());
      // FBNconfiguration.GUIconstants.MOTTO
      if (temp.equals(".MOTTO"))
        Solitaires.MOTTO = new XMLconversion(node).get(Solitaires.MOTTO);
   * A class to package what's left over
  static class Solitaires {
    static String COMMAND_LINE_OPTIONS;
    static int PORT;
    static String WEEKDAYS;
    static int LOCK_DATABASE;
    static int LOCK_LEASE_DURATION;
    static String MOTTO;
    static int SCROLLPANE_JTABLE_WIDTH_DIFFERENCE;
    static boolean BUG_4736093_WORKAROUND;
  }XMLconversion is a pretty simple class:package suncertify.fbn.xml;
import org.w3c.dom.*;
* <p>Title: Fly by Night Travels</p>
* <p>Description: Sun Certified Java Developer application</p>
* <p>Copyright: Copyright (c) 2002</p>
* <p>Company: Fly by Night Consultants</p>
* @author Thomas Fly
* @version 1.0
* Convert a single ("Solitaire") XML entry
public class XMLconversion {
  String value;
  public XMLconversion(Node node) {
    NamedNodeMap atts = node.getAttributes();
    value = atts.item(0).getNodeValue();
  public XMLconversion(Node node, boolean concatenate) {
    NamedNodeMap atts = node.getAttributes();
    value = "";
    for (int i = 0; i < atts.getLength(); i++) {
      Node att = atts.item(i);
      value += atts.item(i).getNodeValue() + "\n";
  public String get(String dataType) {
    return value;
  public int get(int dataType) {
    return new Integer(value).intValue();
  public boolean get(boolean dataType) {
    return value.equalsIgnoreCase("true");
}Then in my FBNconstants class, I have stuff like:// GUIconstants
    MOTTO = Solitaires.MOTTO;
    COMBO_CONTENTS = comboBox_DatabaseField_Mappings.COMBO_CONTENTS;By extension, you can read into HashMap's & ArrayList's, and retrieve the translated objects as required.