javax.xml.transform
Class TransformerFactory

java.lang.Object
  |
  +--javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory

Direct Known Subclasses:

SAXTransformerFactory

public abstract class TransformerFactory

extends java.lang.Object

A TransformerFactory instance can be used to create Transformer and Templates objects.

The system property that determines which Factory implementation to create is named "javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory". This property names a concrete subclass of the TransformerFactory abstract class. If the property is not defined, a platform default is be used.

An implementation of the TransformerFactory class is NOT guaranteed to be thread safe. It is up to the user application to make sure about the use of the TransformerFactory from more than one thread. Alternatively the application can have one instance of the TransformerFactory per thread. An application can use the same instance of the factory to obtain one or more instances of a Transformer or Templates provided the instance of the factory isn't being used in more than one thread at a time.

Method Summary

abstract Source	getAssociatedStylesheet(Source source, java.lang.String media, java.lang.String title, java.lang.String charset) Get the stylesheet specification(s) associated via the xml-stylesheet processing instruction (see http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-stylesheet/) with the document document specified in the source parameter, and that match the given criteria.
abstract java.lang.Object	getAttribute(java.lang.String name) Allows the user to retrieve specific attributes on the underlying implementation.
abstract ErrorListener	getErrorListener() Get the error event handler for the TransformerFactory.
abstract boolean	getFeature(java.lang.String name) Look up the value of a feature.
abstract URIResolver	getURIResolver() Get the object that is used by default during the transformation to resolve URIs used in document(), xsl:import, or xsl:include.
static TransformerFactory	newInstance() Obtain a new instance of a TransformerFactory.
abstract Templates	newTemplates(Source source) Process the Source into a Templates object, which is a a compiled representation of the source.
abstract Transformer	newTransformer() Create a new Transformer object that performs a copy of the source to the result.
abstract Transformer	newTransformer(Source source) Process the Source into a Transformer object.
abstract void	setAttribute(java.lang.String name, java.lang.Object value) Allows the user to set specific attributes on the underlying implementation.
abstract void	setErrorListener(ErrorListener listener) Set the error event listener for the TransformerFactory, which is used for the processing of transformation instructions, and not for the transformation itself.
abstract void	setURIResolver(URIResolver resolver) Set an object that is used by default during the transformation to resolve URIs used in xsl:import, or xsl:include.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

equals, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Method Detail

newInstance

public static TransformerFactory newInstance()
                                      throws TransformerFactoryConfigurationError

Obtain a new instance of a TransformerFactory. This static method creates a new factory instance This method uses the following ordered lookup procedure to determine the TransformerFactory implementation class to load:

• Use the javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory system property.
• Use the properties file "lib/jaxp.properties" in the JRE directory. This configuration file is in standard java.util.Properties format and contains the fully qualified name of the implementation class with the key being the system property defined above.
• Use the Services API (as detailed in the JAR specification), if available, to determine the classname. The Services API will look for a classname in the file META-INF/services/javax.xml.transform.TransformerFactory in jars available to the runtime.
• Platform default TransformerFactory instance.

Once an application has obtained a reference to a TransformerFactory it can use the factory to configure and obtain parser instances.

Returns:

new TransformerFactory instance, never null (unless an ErrorListener is registered with the TransformerFactory, in which case an exception error sends an error message to the ErrorListener and returns null).

Throws:

TransformerFactoryConfigurationError - if the implmentation is not available or cannot be instantiated.

newTransformer

public abstract Transformer newTransformer(Source source)
                                    throws TransformerConfigurationException

Process the Source into a Transformer object. Care must be given not to use this object in multiple threads running concurrently. Different TransformerFactories can be used concurrently by different threads.

Parameters:

source - An object that holds a URI, input stream, etc.

Returns:

A Transformer object that may be used to perform a transformation in a single thread, never null (unless an ErrorListener is registered with the TransformerFactory, in which case an exception error sends an error message to the ErrorListener and returns null).

Throws:

TransformerConfigurationException - May throw this during the parse when it is constructing the Templates object and fails.

newTransformer

public abstract Transformer newTransformer()
                                    throws TransformerConfigurationException

Create a new Transformer object that performs a copy of the source to the result.

Parameters:

source - An object that holds a URI, input stream, etc.

Returns:

A Transformer object that may be used to perform a transformation in a single thread, never null (unless an ErrorListener is registered with the TransformerFactory, in which case an exception error sends an error message to the ErrorListener and returns null).

Throws:

TransformerConfigurationException - May throw this during the parse when it is constructing the Templates object and fails.

newTemplates

public abstract Templates newTemplates(Source source)
                                throws TransformerConfigurationException

Process the Source into a Templates object, which is a a compiled representation of the source. This Templates object may then be used concurrently across multiple threads. Creating a Templates object allows the TransformerFactory to do detailed performance optimization of transformation instructions, without penalizing runtime transformation.

Parameters:

source - An object that holds a URL, input stream, etc.

Returns:

A Templates object capable of being used for transformation purposes, never null (unless an ErrorListener is registered with the TransformerFactory, in which case an exception error sends an error message to the ErrorListener and returns null).

Throws:

TransformerConfigurationException - May throw this during the parse when it is constructing the Templates object and fails.

getAssociatedStylesheet

public abstract Source getAssociatedStylesheet(Source source,
                                               java.lang.String media,
                                               java.lang.String title,
                                               java.lang.String charset)
                                        throws TransformerConfigurationException

Get the stylesheet specification(s) associated via the xml-stylesheet processing instruction (see http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-stylesheet/) with the document document specified in the source parameter, and that match the given criteria. Note that it is possible to return several stylesheets, in which case they are applied as if they were a list of imports or cascades in a single stylesheet.

Parameters:

source - The XML source document.

media - The media attribute to be matched. May be null, in which case the prefered templates will be used (i.e. alternate = no).

title - The value of the title attribute to match. May be null.

charset - The value of the charset attribute to match. May be null.

Returns:

A Source object suitable for passing to the TransformerFactory.

Throws:

TransformerConfigurationException. -

setURIResolver

public abstract void setURIResolver(URIResolver resolver)

Set an object that is used by default during the transformation to resolve URIs used in xsl:import, or xsl:include.

Parameters:

resolver - An object that implements the URIResolver interface, or null.

getURIResolver

public abstract URIResolver getURIResolver()

Get the object that is used by default during the transformation to resolve URIs used in document(), xsl:import, or xsl:include.

Returns:

The URIResolver that was set with setURIResolver.

getFeature

public abstract boolean getFeature(java.lang.String name)

Look up the value of a feature.

The feature name is any absolute URI.

Parameters:

name - The feature name, which is an absolute URI.

Returns:

The current state of the feature (true or false).

setAttribute

public abstract void setAttribute(java.lang.String name,
                                  java.lang.Object value)
                           throws java.lang.IllegalArgumentException

Allows the user to set specific attributes on the underlying implementation. An attribute in this context is defined to be an option that the implementation provides.

Parameters:

name - The name of the attribute.

value - The value of the attribute.

Throws:

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException - thrown if the underlying implementation doesn't recognize the attribute.

getAttribute

public abstract java.lang.Object getAttribute(java.lang.String name)
                                       throws java.lang.IllegalArgumentException

Allows the user to retrieve specific attributes on the underlying implementation.

Parameters:

name - The name of the attribute.

Returns:

value The value of the attribute.

Throws:

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException - thrown if the underlying implementation doesn't recognize the attribute.

setErrorListener

public abstract void setErrorListener(ErrorListener listener)
                               throws java.lang.IllegalArgumentException

Set the error event listener for the TransformerFactory, which is used for the processing of transformation instructions, and not for the transformation itself.

Parameters:

listener - The new error listener.

Throws:

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException - if listener is null.

getErrorListener

public abstract ErrorListener getErrorListener()

Get the error event handler for the TransformerFactory.

Returns:

The current error handler, which should never be null.