Groovy Goodness: Reading XML

In a previous Groovy Goodness post we learned how to write XML with builders. In this post we learn how to read XML with the XmlParser and XmlSlurper classes. The main difference between both parsers is that the XmlParser return a list of NodeList and Node objects and the XmlSlurper return a GPathResult.

First we parse the XML with the XmlParser. We define a namespace so we can access the meta.isbn elements with a namespace syntax.

import groovy.xml.*

def xml = '''
<books xmlns:meta="http://meta/book/info" count="3">
  <book id="1">
    <title lang="en">Groovy in Action</title>
    <meta:isbn>1-932394-84-2</meta:isbn>
  </book>
  <book id="2">
    <title lang="en">Groovy Programming</title>
    <meta:isbn>0123725070</meta:isbn>
  </book>
  <book id="3">
    <title>Groovy &amp; Grails</title>
    <!--Not yet available.-->
  </book>
  <book id="4">
    <title>Griffon Guide</title>
  </book>
</books>
'''

def ns = new Namespace('http://meta/book/info', 'meta')
def books = new XmlParser().parseText(xml)
assert books instanceof Node
assert 4 == books.book.size()
assert 11 == books.breadthFirst().size()
assert 'Groovy in Action' == books.book[0].title.text()
assert 'Groovy Programming' == books.book.find { it.'@id' == '2' }.title.text()
assert 'Groovy Programming' == books.book.find { it.attribute('id') == '2' }.title.text()
assert [1, 2, 3] ==  books.book.findAll { it.title.text() =~ /Groovy/ }.'@id'*.toInteger()
assert ['1-932394-84-2', '0123725070'] == books.book[ns.isbn].inject([]) { result, v -> result << v.text() }

We can try the code in Groovy Web Console.

Next we use XmlSlurper to parse the same XML.

import groovy.xml.*

def xml = '''
<books xmlns:meta="http://meta/book/info" count="3">
  <book id="1">
    <title lang="en">Groovy in Action</title>
    <meta:isbn>1-932394-84-2</meta:isbn>
  </book>
  <book id="2">
    <title lang="en">Groovy Programming</title>
    <meta:isbn>0123725070</meta:isbn>
  </book>
  <book id="3">
    <title>Groovy &amp; Grails</title>
    <!--Not yet available.-->
  </book>
  <book id="4">
    <title>Griffon Guide</title>
  </book>
</books>
'''

def books = new XmlSlurper().parseText(xml).declareNamespace([meta:'http://meta/book/info'])
assert books instanceof groovy.util.slurpersupport.GPathResult
assert 4 == books.book.size()
assert 11 == books.breadthFirst().size()
assert 'Groovy in Action' == books.book[0].title.text()
assert 'Groovy Programming' == books.book.find { it.@id == '2' }.title as String
assert [1, 2, 3] == books.book.findAll { it.title =~ /Groovy/ }.'@id'*.toInteger()
assert ['1-932394-84-2', '0123725070'] == books.book.'meta:isbn'*.toString()

We can try the code in Groovy Web Console.