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Groovys MarkupBuilder and Namespaces

Groovys MarkupBuilder and Namespaces

Yesterday Kit Plummer posted an XML example using Ruby to demonstrate how to include attributes and namespaces. So I went on a quest to duplicate his output using Groovy to compare the difference and evangelize.

Here is the desired output:

<person:person text=test>
 <name>Jim</name>
 <phone>555-1234</phone>
</person:person>

Using the Groovy Console, and Groovys ninja-like MarkupBuilder, you can execute the following script to get attributes and namespace prefixes:

import groovy.xml.MarkupBuilder

def writer = new StringWriter()
def xml = new MarkupBuilder(writer)

xml.person:person(text: test) {
 name(Jim)
 phone(555-1234)
}

println writer.toString()

If you prefer to define a default namespace instead do this:

xml.person(>
 <name>Jim</name>
 <phone>555-1234</phone>
<person:person>

I think its more readable than the Ruby example and definitely much better than the equivalent Java code.

By the way, I attempted to use this online syntax highlighter and did not like it. Does anyone know of a good online syntax highlighter?

Available link for download