Displaying XML with JSF DataTable

Take the following steps to read data from XML document - books.xml, load it into an ArrayList as object of Book class using managed bean - Books and then the data from a property of managed bean is displayed using dataTable of JSF.

• Creating XML Document - books.xml
• Creating required classes - Book.java, Books.java
• Register managed bean in faces-config.xml
• Creating JSP - listbooks.jsp - to display data that is taken from Managed bean.

Creating XML Document

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="windows-1252"?>
<books>
   <book>
       <title>JSF In Action </title>
       <author>Kito D. Mann </author>
       <price>550</price>
   </book>
   <book>
       <title>Struts 2 In Action </title>
       <author>Brown, David , Stanlink</author>
       <price>500</price>
   </book>
   <book>
       <title>Beginning Hibernate (From Novice to Professional) </title>
       <author>Dave Minter and Jeff Linwood</author>
       <price>299</price>
   </book>
   <book>
       <title>Oracle Database 11g  SQL</title>
       <author>Jason Price</author>
       <price>499</price>
   </book>
   
   <book>
       <title>Java Complete Reference</title>
       <author>Herbert Schildt</author>
       <price>499</price>
   </book>
</books>

Creating required classes

// Book.java
public class Book {
      private String title, author;
      private int price;
      public Book() {}
      public Book(String title, String author, int price) {
          this.title= title;
          this.author = author;
          this.price = price;
      }
    public String getTitle() {
        return title;
    }
    public void setTitle(String title) {
        this.title = title;
    }
    public String getAuthor() {
        return author;
    }
    public void setAuthor(String author) {
        this.author = author;
    }
    public int getPrice() {
        return price;
    }
    public void setPrice(int price) {
        this.price = price;
    }
}

//Books.java
import java.io.File;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import javax.faces.context.FacesContext;
import javax.servlet.ServletContext;
import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder;
import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory;
import org.w3c.dom.Document;
import org.w3c.dom.Element;
import org.w3c.dom.Node;
import org.w3c.dom.NodeList;
public class Books {
    public ArrayList getBooks() {
        ArrayList al = new ArrayList();
        Book b;
        
        // read data from XML file
        DocumentBuilderFactory factory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
        Document  document;
        try {
            DocumentBuilder builder = factory.newDocumentBuilder();
            // get physical path for BOOKS.XML. First get access to ServletContext using FacesContext
            ServletContext context = (ServletContext) FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext().getContext();
            
            String filepath = context.getRealPath("/books.xml");  // get physical path for /books.xml
            document = builder.parse( new File(filepath));
            Element root = document.getDocumentElement();
            NodeList books  =  root.getChildNodes();
            for (int i = 0 ; i < books.getLength(); i ++)
            {
                // skip the rest if node is not an elemtn
	            if ( books.item(i).getNodeType() != Node.ELEMENT_NODE)
	               continue;
	               
                NodeList bookdetails = books.item(i).getChildNodes();
                
                // create a book with the data from book element in XML document
                b = new Book( bookdetails.item(1).getTextContent(),
                                   bookdetails.item(3).getTextContent(),
                                   Integer.parseInt(bookdetails.item(5).getTextContent())) ;
                al.add(b);  // add book to ArrayList
            }
            return al;
        } 
        catch (Exception e) {
           System.out.println("\n** Parsing error" + ", line " + e.getMessage());
           return null;
        }
    }
}

Register ManagedBean in faces-config.xml

  <managed-bean>
        <managed-bean-name>Books</managed-bean-name>
        <managed-bean-class>Books</managed-bean-class>
        <managed-bean-scope>request</managed-bean-scope>
  </managed-bean>
  

Creating JSP to display data that is taken from Managed bean.

<%@page contentType="text/html"%>
<%@page pageEncoding="UTF-8"%>
<%@taglib prefix="f" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"%>
<%@taglib prefix="h" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"%>
<html>
    <head>
        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
        <title>List Of Books</title>
        <style>
        .header {background-color:red;color:white;font:700 12pt arial}            
        .row1 {}
        .row2 { background-color:#dddddd}
        </style>
            
    </head>
    <body>
        <h1>List Of Books</h1>
        <f:view>
            <h:form>
                <h:dataTable value="#{Books.books}" var="book"  border="1" 
                headerClass="header"   rowClasses="row1,row2">
                    <h:column>
                        <f:facet name="header"> <f:verbatim>Title</f:verbatim> </f:facet>
                        <h:outputText value="#{book.title}"/>
                    </h:column>
                    <h:column>
                        <f:facet name="header"> <f:verbatim>Author</f:verbatim> </f:facet>
                        <h:outputText value="#{book.author}"/>
                    </h:column>
                    
                    <h:column>
                        <f:facet name="header"> <f:verbatim>Price</f:verbatim> </f:facet>
                        <h:outputText  value="#{book.price}"/>
                    </h:column>
                </h:dataTable>
            </h:form>
            
        </f:view>
    </body>
</html>