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JDOM

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Source updated July 25, 2026

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JDOM is an open-source Java-based document object model for XML that was designed specifically for the Java platform so that it can take advantage of its language features. JDOM integrates with Document Object Model (DOM) and Simple API for XML (SAX), supports XPath and XSLT. It uses external parsers to build documents. JDOM was developed by Jason Hunter and Brett McLaughlin starting in March 2000. It has been part of the Java Community Process as JSR 102, though that effort has since been abandoned.

01Examples

Suppose the file "foo.xml" contains this XML document:

One can parse the XML file into a tree of Java objects with JDOM, like so:

SAXBuilder builder = new SAXBuilder(); Document doc = builder.build(new FileInputStream("foo.xml")); Element root = doc.getRootElement(); // root.getName() is "shop" // root.getAttributeValue("name") is "shop for geeks" // root.getAttributeValue("location") is "Tokyo, Japan" // root.getChildren() is a java.util.List object that contains 3 Element objects.

In case you do not want to create the document object from any file or any input stream, you can create the document object against the element.

Element root = new Element("shop"); // here <shop></shop> is the root Document doc = new Document(root); // create a new document with the supplied element as the root

As a converse, one can construct a tree of elements, then generate an XML file from it, as in the following example:

Element root = new Element("shop"); root.setAttribute("name", "shop for geeks"); root.setAttribute("location", "Tokyo, Japan"); Element item1 = new Element("computer"); item1.setAttribute("name", "iBook"); item1.setAttribute("price", "1200$"); root.addContent(item1); // perform similar steps for other elements XMLOutputter outputter = new XMLOutputter(); outputter.output(new Document(root), new FileOutputStream ("foo2.xml"));

Watch videos about JDOMExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “JDOM”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

Jdom.png by Harrytuttle1, CC BY-SA 3.0
Jdom-factories.png by Harrytuttle1, CC BY-SA 3.0

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