How to display XML source in a text area view with syntax color highlighting in Java?

Posted Mon, 03/02/2009 - 21:47 by katie

This article will take you through how one can display an XML document or file contents as a source view with syntax color highlighting in a Java program. There are some open source products available to solve this purpose. This article will focus on one particular open source product that is new and sounds promising.

Table of Contents [hide]

How to display raw XML source in a text area view with syntax color highlighting in Java?

Introduction

XML Documents can be displayed in a Java program in two main representations:

  • Tree view
  • Source view

Tree view is one of the most common ways used with node expansion mechanism. Source view is purely dispalying the entire XML file contents as it is in the file in the GUIGraphical User Interface - The visual front-end of your application through which the user interacts with your application. Check out this Swing Java tutorial for basic GUI programming..

Displaying XML in Source View

The simplest and straightforward way to display XML in source view is to use a JTextArea. The steps are as simple as listed below:

  1. Read contents of the XML file
  2. Store the contents of the file as a StringThe String class represents character strings. All string literals in Java programs, such as "abc", are implemented as instances of this class. Below are all the articles related to String. object
  3. set the String as the JTextArea's text

How to read contents of a file?

see this article "Reading from a character based file using the FileReader"

How to display the contents in a TextArea?

The contents read from a file should be stored in a String object and simply set the resulting object as the JTextArea's  text.

 

 JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea();
 textArea.setText(String);

XML Syntax color highlighting in Source View

Adding the contents of an XML file to a textarea will display the XML syntax as plain black text. To color highlight different tokens (Node elements, attributes, attribute values etc)

There are two opensource products I found that fulfill this requirement:

  • IBM XMLSourceView
  • Fifesoft - RSyntaxTextArea

Some differences between XMLSourceView & RSyntaxTextArea

 

XMLSourceViewRSyntaxTextArea
IBM productFifesoft product
Open source productOpen source product
inacitve- project is now closed
Very much active
provides Syntax Color highlighting for XMLprovides Syntax Color highlighting for over 20 languages
Main disadvantage is that the project is closed, further to that it is limited to small sized documents. struggles to display for larger ones produces optimum results even for large files.

 

RSyntaxTextArea

"RSyntaxTextArea is a syntax highlighting text component for Java Swing. It extends JTextComponent so it integrates completely with the standard javax.swing.text package. It is fast and efficient, and can be used in any application that needs to edit or view source code. " - www.fifesoft.com

Apart from color coding, it also provides the following options with the xml syntax displayed in the text area:

  • cut
  • copy
  • paste
  • delete
  • undo
  • redo
  • select all

How to use RSyntaxTextArea for XML syntax highlighting?

Steps:

  • Download and attach the "RSyntaxTextArea.jar" to your java project.
  • RSyntaxTextArea extends JTextArea, so just as explained earlier, read the XML file and set the contents String object as the text area's text.

// Syntax highlighting text component for Java Swing
RSyntaxTextArea rsyntaxtextarea = new RSyntaxTextArea();

/** As this product can highlight over 20 languages, we need
 *to specify that we want to highlight XML source
 */
rsyntaxtextarea.setSyntaxEditingStyle(SyntaxConstants.SYNTAX_STYLE_XML);

/** read contents of your XML file - readFile() is a custom written method.
 * see article <a href="/drupal/ReadingACharacterFileUsingFileReader" target="_blank">"Reading from a character based file using the FileReader"</a> or
 * you can write your own method
 */
String contents = readFile("c:\projects\test.xml");
rsyntaxtextarea.setText(contents);
If you want to know how to read a file, see article "Reading from a character based file using the FileReader"  

  • This will automatically display the XML source color highlighted with the default colors. We can change the fonts, colors and styles according to our needs with their provided methods.

To download RSyntaxTextArea or get more information about this open source project, visit http://fifesoft.com/rsyntaxtextarea/

Hope this article was useful to u. We will update you with more articles on how to change styles and full code listing soon.

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Comments

thank you

by Visitor - 07/28/2009 - 08:42

very usefull explanation. Thank you.

bnatey

by Visitor - 11/13/2009 - 17:29


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  • You can enable syntax highlighting of source code with the following tags: <code>. Beside the tag style "<foo>" it is also possible to use "[foo]".
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

  • Search Engines will index and follow ONLY links to allowed domains.

More information about formatting options

How to display XML source in a text area view with syntax color highlighting in Java? | Our website now yours! - Currenlty Java focussed.

How to display XML source in a text area view with syntax color highlighting in Java?

Posted Mon, 03/02/2009 - 21:47 by katie

This article will take you through how one can display an XML document or file contents as a source view with syntax color highlighting in a Java program. There are some open source products available to solve this purpose. This article will focus on one particular open source product that is new and sounds promising.

Table of Contents [hide]

How to display raw XML source in a text area view with syntax color highlighting in Java?

Introduction

XML Documents can be displayed in a Java program in two main representations:

  • Tree view
  • Source view

Tree view is one of the most common ways used with node expansion mechanism. Source view is purely dispalying the entire XML file contents as it is in the file in the GUIGraphical User Interface - The visual front-end of your application through which the user interacts with your application. Check out this Swing Java tutorial for basic GUI programming..

Displaying XML in Source View

The simplest and straightforward way to display XML in source view is to use a JTextArea. The steps are as simple as listed below:

  1. Read contents of the XML file
  2. Store the contents of the file as a StringThe String class represents character strings. All string literals in Java programs, such as "abc", are implemented as instances of this class. Below are all the articles related to String. object
  3. set the String as the JTextArea's text

How to read contents of a file?

see this article "Reading from a character based file using the FileReader"

How to display the contents in a TextArea?

The contents read from a file should be stored in a String object and simply set the resulting object as the JTextArea's  text.

 

 JTextArea textArea = new JTextArea();
 textArea.setText(String);

XML Syntax color highlighting in Source View

Adding the contents of an XML file to a textarea will display the XML syntax as plain black text. To color highlight different tokens (Node elements, attributes, attribute values etc)

There are two opensource products I found that fulfill this requirement:

  • IBM XMLSourceView
  • Fifesoft - RSyntaxTextArea

Some differences between XMLSourceView & RSyntaxTextArea

 

XMLSourceViewRSyntaxTextArea
IBM productFifesoft product
Open source productOpen source product
inacitve- project is now closed
Very much active
provides Syntax Color highlighting for XMLprovides Syntax Color highlighting for over 20 languages
Main disadvantage is that the project is closed, further to that it is limited to small sized documents. struggles to display for larger ones produces optimum results even for large files.

 

RSyntaxTextArea

"RSyntaxTextArea is a syntax highlighting text component for Java Swing. It extends JTextComponent so it integrates completely with the standard javax.swing.text package. It is fast and efficient, and can be used in any application that needs to edit or view source code. " - www.fifesoft.com

Apart from color coding, it also provides the following options with the xml syntax displayed in the text area:

  • cut
  • copy
  • paste
  • delete
  • undo
  • redo
  • select all

How to use RSyntaxTextArea for XML syntax highlighting?

Steps:

  • Download and attach the "RSyntaxTextArea.jar" to your java project.
  • RSyntaxTextArea extends JTextArea, so just as explained earlier, read the XML file and set the contents String object as the text area's text.

// Syntax highlighting text component for Java Swing
RSyntaxTextArea rsyntaxtextarea = new RSyntaxTextArea();

/** As this product can highlight over 20 languages, we need
 *to specify that we want to highlight XML source
 */
rsyntaxtextarea.setSyntaxEditingStyle(SyntaxConstants.SYNTAX_STYLE_XML);

/** read contents of your XML file - readFile() is a custom written method.
 * see article <a href="/drupal/ReadingACharacterFileUsingFileReader" target="_blank">"Reading from a character based file using the FileReader"</a> or
 * you can write your own method
 */
String contents = readFile("c:\projects\test.xml");
rsyntaxtextarea.setText(contents);
If you want to know how to read a file, see article "Reading from a character based file using the FileReader"  

  • This will automatically display the XML source color highlighted with the default colors. We can change the fonts, colors and styles according to our needs with their provided methods.

To download RSyntaxTextArea or get more information about this open source project, visit http://fifesoft.com/rsyntaxtextarea/

Hope this article was useful to u. We will update you with more articles on how to change styles and full code listing soon.

  • Delicious
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • Yahoo
  • Technorati

Comments

thank you

by Visitor - 07/28/2009 - 08:42

very usefull explanation. Thank you.

bnatey

by Visitor - 11/13/2009 - 17:29


توبيكات


توبيكات توبيكات


توبيكات اسلاميه


توبيكات اسلاميه


توبيكات حزينه

توبيكات حب


توبيكات رومانسيه


توبيكات اسماء


توبيكات اغاني


توبيكات منوعه


توبيكات مضحكه



توبيكات عتاب
توبيكات عتاب
توبيكات ساخره
توبيكات شعريه

توبيكات اجنبيه
توبيكات جديده
توبيكات بنات
توبيكات 2010
توبيكات اعياد
توبيكات عيد الاضحى
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توبيكات الاهلي
توبيكات الزمالك

توبيكات
توبيكات

توبيكات اسلاميه
توبيكات حزينه

توبيكات حب
توبيكات رومانسيه
توبيكات اسماء
توبيكات اغاني

توبيكات منوعه
توبيكات مضحكه
توبيكات عتاب

توبيكات ساخره
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توبيكات اجنبيه

توبيكات نكت
توبيكات جوال

توبيكات سعوديه
توبيكات شخصيات فنيه
توبيكات ليلة العمر
توبيكات

توبيكات

توبيكات فلاش

توبيكات روعه

توبيكات رائعه

منتديات
دردشة

العاب

العاب بنات
شات


توبيكات مصريه


توبيكات قطريه


دليل مواقع


تحميل صور


مركز تحميل


برامج
كأس العالم
كأس العالم 2010

العاب
العاب بنات
منتدي
فيديو بنات
برامج
مركز رفع صور
شات
دليل المواقع العربيه
العاب
العاب
دليل مواقع
توبيكات
كتب
مقالات
صور
منتدى أجنبي
منتديات

Post new comment

  • You can enable syntax highlighting of source code with the following tags: <code>. Beside the tag style "<foo>" it is also possible to use "[foo]".
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

  • Search Engines will index and follow ONLY links to allowed domains.

More information about formatting options