Why are all the events in the XML SAX parser not activated?

Question

Hi everyone,
I have written a mini server that parses XML files into SQL queries.
Below is a segment of my code;
          try          {                                                       
               Class.forName( JDBC_DRIVER );
               myConnection = DriverManager.getConnection( DATABASE_URL, "username", "password");                                                  
               EventXMLParser myEXP = new EventXMLParser(directory, myConnection);
               File[] xmlFiles = directory.listFiles();
               for (File xmlFile : xmlFiles)               {     
                    myEXP.XMLtoDB(xmlFile);
                    outWriter.println("File:" + xmlFile.getName() + " DONE");
          } catch (SQLException e)     {
               System.err.println("SQLException for establishing connection");
               e.printStackTrace();
          } catch (ClassNotFoundException e)     {
               System.err.println("CLASS NOT FOUND EXCEPTION HERE");
               e.printStackTrace();
          } catch (Exception e)     {
               System.err.println(e);
               e.printStackTrace();
          finally {
               outWriter.println("PARSING COMPLETED");
               outWriter.close();
     }Where the constructor EventXMLParser constructs the following:
     public EventXMLParser(File path, Connection connection)     {
          super();
          try     {
               this.XMLpath = path;
               this.db_connection = connection;
               this.xr = XMLReaderFactory.createXMLReader();
               this.XMLSAXhandler  = new DefaultHandler(); //create a new own handler
               this.xr.setContentHandler(XMLSAXhandler);
               this.xr.setErrorHandler(XMLSAXhandler);
               //System.out.println("DEBUG: db_connection is " + db_connection.toString());
          catch (Exception e)     {
               System.out.println("Constructor Error!");
               e.printStackTrace();
     }Below are all my helper methods within EventXMLParser.java
     public void XMLtoDB(String XMLpath) throws Exception  {
          try     {
               //Input
               System.out.println("XMLpath is : " + XMLpath);
               /*FileReader r = new FileReader(XMLpath); debug
               InputSource in = new InputSource(r);
               xr.parse(in);
               xr.parse(XMLpath);
               /* Note that while parsing, the end of each event, </event>
                * will trigger sendSQL to execute the query on the database
          catch (Exception e)     {
               throw new Exception("Error with XMLtoDB!! Exception: " + e);
     public void sendSQL(Event event, Connection sql_connection) throws SQLException     {
               //JDBC part
               try     {
                    System.err.println("DEBUG sendSQL");
                    Statement sql_statement = sql_connection.createStatement();
                    ResultSet resultSet = sql_statement.executeQuery( event.toSQL() );
               catch (SQLException e)     {
                    e.printStackTrace();
     /* Parsing XML
      * From here onwards it's all designed for the SAX Parsing with different event calling methods
     public void startDocument()     {
          System.err.println("Start Document");
     public void endDocument()     {
          System.err.println("End Document");
     public void startElement(String uri, String name, String qName, Attributes atts)     {
          CurrentElement= name;
          System.out.println("This is parsing");
     public void characters(char ch[], int start, int length)     {
          SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss");
          StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
          for (int i = start; i < start + length; i++)     
               sb.append(ch);
          String content = sb.toString();
          if (CurrentElement.equals("eid"))
               temp.setEventID( (Integer.valueOf(content)).intValue() ) ;
          else if (CurrentElement.equals("sd"))
               temp.setShort_description(content);
          else if (CurrentElement.equals("ld"))
               temp.setLong_description(content);
          else if ( (CurrentElement.equals("dt")))
               temp.setDate_Time( formatter.parse(content, new ParsePosition(0)) );
          else if (CurrentElement.equals("repeat"))
               temp.setRepeat_pattern( (Integer.valueOf(content)).intValue() );
          else if (CurrentElement.equals("valid"))
               temp.setValid_period(content);
          else if (CurrentElement.equals("status"))     {
               temp.setStatus( (Integer.valueOf(content)).intValue() );
          else {}
     public void endElement(String uri, String name, String qName)     {
          System.err.println("DEBUG" + temp.toString()); /*debug*/
          if (name.equals("event"))     {
               try     {
                    /*debug*/ temp.setUserID(1);
                    /*debug*/ System.err.println("DEBUG: " + temp.toString());
                    sendSQL(temp, db_connection);
                    //temp = new Event();
               catch (SQLException e)     {
                    System.err.println(e);
               }//end catch
          }//end try
Where event is a public class Event     {
     //fields
     private int userID = 1; // = 1 only applies for testing
     private int eventID;
     private String short_description;
     private String long_description;
     private Date date_time = null;
     private int repeat_pattern;
     private String valid_period;
     private int status;     //1 for new, 0 for modification and -1 for delete
     SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss");
     //Constructors
     //every event requires the following: userID eventID and short_Description
     public Event(int uID, int eID, String shortDescrp)     {
          setUserID(uID);
          setEventID(eID);
          setShort_description(shortDescrp);
     public Event(int uid, int eid, String sd,
                              String ld, Date d_t, int r_p, String v_p, int s)     {
          setUserID(uid);
          setEventID(eid);
          setShort_description(sd);
          setLong_description(ld);
          setDate_Time(d_t);
          setRepeat_pattern(r_p);
          setValid_period(v_p);
          setStatus(s);
     //set
     public void setUserID (int x)                         { this.userID = x ;}
     public void setEventID (int x)                         { this.eventID = x ;}
     public void setShort_description (String x)          { this.short_description = x ;}
     public void setLong_description (String x)          { this.long_description = x ;}
     public void setDate_Time(Date x)                    { this.date_time = x ;}
     public void setRepeat_pattern (int x)               { this.repeat_pattern = x ;}
     public void setValid_period (String x)               { this.valid_period = x ;}
     public void setStatus (int x)                         { this.status = x; }
     //get
     public int           getUserID()                              { return this.userID;}
     public int           getEventID()                         { return this.eventID;}
     public String      getShort_description()               { return this.short_description;}
     public String      getLong_description()               { return this.long_description;}
     public Date        getDate_Time()                         { return this.date_time;}
     public int         getRepeat_pattern()                    { return this.repeat_pattern;}
     public String      getValid_period()                    { return this.valid_period;}
     public int           getStatus()                              { return this.status; }
     //Event to SQL statements;
     public String toSQL()     {
          StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
          ///if ( status == 1)     {
               sb.append( "INSERT INTO events SET" );
               sb.append( " userID = " + userID + ", ");
               sb.append( "eventID = " + eventID + ", " );
               sb.append( "short_description = " + "\'" + short_description + "\'" + ", "); //String
               sb.append( "long_description = " + "\'" + long_description + "\'"  + ", "); //String
               sb.append( "date_time = " + "\'" + formatter.format(date_time) + "\'" + ", ");
               sb.append( "repeat_pattern = " + repeat_pattern + ", " );
               sb.append( "valid_period = " + "\'" + valid_period + "\'" ); //String
               sb.append( ";");
          //} else if ( status == 2)      {
          System.err.println(sb.toString());
          return sb.toString();
}     My question is: I have taken my SQL query generated by toSQL() method in events and it worked.
Here is the funny thing:
Everything is correct syntax wise: No complaints what soever
The mysql part works: Tested separately.
So I tend to think that the problem lies within the SAX parser. I have written SAX2 parsers on this machine before and they have worked too. I tried inserting println statements all over startElement endElement etc etc only to find out that the SAX parser did not call any of the methods that I overided!! Why is that so?
Can you guys spot where my SAX parser fails?

Answer 1

I see.
I try to correct this problem by removing super();
so right now my code looks like this:
     static Event temp = new Event(0, 0, "null", "null", new Date(), 0, "null", 0);
     static String CurrentElement = null;
     static File XMLpath;
     static Connection db_connection;
     static XMLReader xr;
     static DefaultHandler XMLSAXhandler; 
     //Constructor,      Build the SAX Parser
     public EventXMLParser(File path, Connection connection)     {
          try     {
               this.XMLpath = path;
               this.db_connection = connection;
               this.xr = XMLReaderFactory.createXMLReader();
               this.XMLSAXhandler  = new DefaultHandler(); //create a new own handler
               this.xr.setContentHandler(XMLSAXhandler);
               this.xr.setErrorHandler(XMLSAXhandler);
               //System.out.println("DEBUG: db_connection is " + db_connection.toString());
          catch (Exception e)     {
               System.out.println("Constructor Error!");
               e.printStackTrace();
     }This time, I created a new instance of default handler() which can be referenced by as the objects's XMLSAXhandler. However, that did not solve the problem, why does the problem still persist?
Right now, there is only one instance of a default handler created. So why does all my parsing event functions still get ignored?