[jdom-interest] Checking for attributes without names

[stephan.segschneider at snellwilcox.com]

____________________Reply Separator____________________
Subject:    RE: [jdom-interest] Checking for attributes without namespac
Author: philip.nelson at omniresources.com
Date:       28/06/01 15:50


> I have just changed my code to work with JDOM beta 7R2. 
> Everything works fine
> but the new setAttribute() method in Element.
> At the moment a checking for an already existing attribute 
> happens only if the
> attribute uses a namespace prefix (see line 1603 in 
> Element.java). I don't think
> that's sensible. In other words, you can't use setAttribute() 
> to update an
> attributes value if you use no namespace prefix. You always 
> need to check inside
> your code if an attribute already exists before you update its value.

The attribute is not updated, it is replaced.  In the case of no namespace,
it can immediately be replaced.  Otherwise there are xml namespace rules
like you can't have two elements with a prefix foo that point to different
uri's.

You can always update an attributes value without replacing it.

Attribute att = element.getAttribute("name");
att.setValue("boo");

------------
Sure, that's what I did before. But you always have to check if the getAttribute
method returns null before you update the value with setValue. The DOM 1.0
Element defines a setAttribute(name, value) method as well which will update the
value if the attribute exists and in case the attribute does not exist it will
automatically create one. I expected the same behaviour for the setAttribute
method in JDOMs Element class.

Stephan




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