XML and sending its data by sockets

Question

In my new project, i need to receive data from an XML file and send it to a client when the client has requested it from my server.
so far, i've stored the elements into variables (i'll call them item1, item2, and item3 for now). I put this into the protocol so when the client calls upon the server to store itemn to one of its variables, it will do so.
apperently, all this does is send my String variable output, which starts out as null and doesn't change, and so the output remains null which in turn will close my client. here's my protocol (it gathers data from avalonmap.xml):
* xmlStorage.java
* Created on January 3, 2006, 12:23 AM
* To change this template, choose Tools | Options and locate the template under
* the Source Creation and Management node. Right-click the template and choose
* Open. You can then make changes to the template in the Source Editor.
package mudmap.xml;
import java.io.*;
import org.xml.sax.*;
import org.xml.sax.helpers.DefaultHandler;
import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory;
import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParser;
* @author Fender Bender
public class mapLoader extends DefaultHandler {
    StringBuffer textBuffer;
    String roomName, region, color, roomOwner,roomCCC, roomCCCID, roomItem,
            roomItemID;
    String directions[];
    String dx,dy;
    static String currentElement;
    /** Creates a new instance of mapLoder() */
    public mapLoader() {
    public String processInput(String input) {
        String output="hello";
        if(input=="getRoom") { // for now, I'll call this item1. if client requests
            output = roomName;  //  it, the output will be roomName
                                                  // which is defined at //============
                                                  // in EchoText()
        return output;
    public static void main(String argv[]) {
        // Use an instance of ourselves as the SAX event handler
        DefaultHandler handler = new mapLoader();
// Use the default (non-validating) parser
        SAXParserFactory factory = SAXParserFactory.newInstance();
        try {
// Set up output stream
            out = new OutputStreamWriter(System.out, "UTF8");
            SAXParser saxParser = factory.newSAXParser();
            saxParser.parse( new File("avalonmap.xml"), handler );
        } catch (Throwable t) {
            t.printStackTrace();
        System.exit(0);
    static private Writer out;
    public void startDocument()
    throws SAXException {
        nl();
        nl();
        emit("START DOCUMENT");
        nl();
        emit("<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>");
    public void endDocument()
    throws SAXException {
        nl();
        emit("END DOCUMENT");
        nl();
        emit(region + "\n" + color + "\n" + roomOwner  + "\n" + roomName + "\n" +
                dx + "," + dy + "\n" + "room CCCs: " + roomCCC + " (" +
                roomCCCID + ")\n" + "room items: " + roomItem + " (" +
                roomItemID +")");
        try {
            nl();
            out.flush();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            throw new SAXException("I/O error", e);
    public void startElement(String namespaceURI,
            String sName, // simple name
            String qName, // qualified name
            Attributes attrs)
            throws SAXException {
        echoText();
        nl();
        emit("ELEMENT: ");
        String eName = sName; // element name
        if ("".equals(eName)) eName = qName; // not namespace-aware
        emit("<"+eName);
        currentElement=eName;
        if (attrs != null) {
            for (int i = 0; i < attrs.getLength(); i++) {
                String aName = attrs.getLocalName(i); // Attr name
                if ("".equals(aName)) aName = attrs.getQName(i);
                nl();
                emit(" ATTR: ");
                emit(aName);
                emit("\t\"");
                emit(attrs.getValue(i));
                emit("\"");
        if (attrs.getLength() > 0) nl();
        emit(">");
    public void endElement(String namespaceURI,
            String sName, // simple name
            String qName // qualified name
            throws SAXException {
        echoText();
        currentElement="";
        nl();
        emit("END_ELM: ");
        String eName = sName; // element name
        if ("".equals(eName)) eName = qName; // not namespace-aware
        emit("</"+eName+">");
    public void characters(char buf[], int offset, int len)
    throws SAXException {
        String s = new String(buf, offset, len);
        if (textBuffer == null) {
            textBuffer = new StringBuffer(s);
        } else {
            textBuffer.append(s);
    private void echoText()
    throws SAXException {
        if (textBuffer == null) return;
        nl();
        emit("CHARS:  |" + currentElement + ": ");
        String s = ""+textBuffer;
        if(currentElement=="region") {
            region = s;
        } else if(currentElement=="color") {
            color = s;
        } else if(currentElement=="roomOwner") {
            roomOwner = s;
        } else if(currentElement=="roomName") {
            roomName = s;                                             //============
        } else if(currentElement=="x") {
            dx = s;
        } else if(currentElement=="y") {
            dy = s;
        } else if(currentElement=="roomCCC") {
            roomCCC = s;
        } else if(currentElement=="roomCCCID") {
            roomCCCID = s;
        } else if(currentElement=="roomItem") {
            roomItem = s;
        } else if(currentElement=="roomItemID") {
            roomItemID = s;
        emit("|");
        textBuffer = null;
    private void emit(String s)
    throws SAXException {
        try {
            out.write(s);
            out.flush();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            throw new SAXException("I/O error", e);
    private void nl()
    throws SAXException {
        String lineEnd = System.getProperty("line.separator");
        try {
            out.write(lineEnd);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            throw new SAXException("I/O error", e);
}

Answer 1

for one thing, don't use == to compare strings... You have that all over the place, like:
if(currentElement=="region") {