TransformerException, getting the source

Question

Hi, I'm creating an XSLT editor, and using the javax.xml.transform library, I'm allowing the users to do the transformations in my program.
When the stylesheet is not valid, e.g. there is a missing tag, or an element missing a required attribute, an TransformerException is thrown. I would like to show them the source of the problem as the exception message doesn't always provide a line number.
I'm trying to use the source locator to provide better information, than that of:
file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/y0210323/Desktop/classes/text.xsl: line 2: You cannot call an attribute ''
but unfortunately the source locator is always null, when I pull it from the exception.
public void alertError(TransformerException e){
     SourceLocator sl = e.getLocator();
     String line = "";
     if(sl != null){
          System.out.println("SL not null: "+ sl.getLineNumber());
     else{
          System.out.println("SL Null");
It always produces

Answer 1

I've sorted the problem out now.
The transformer exception sometimes wrapped the exception. I wrote a method to check if the sourcelocator was null for the given exception.
If it was null, it would recursively unwrap the exception to get the root. And depending on the class of the root it would get the line and column numbers. If the root was a TransformerException it would get the sourceLocator, but if it was a SAXParseException it would get the line and column numbers directly from the exception.