How to prevent xml transformer to transform empty tags into single tag

Question

I'm using javax.xml.transform.Transformer class to transform the DOM source into XML string. I have some empty elements in DOM tree, and these become one tag which I don't want.

How do I prevent <sampletag></sampletag> from becoming <sampletag/>?

Answer 1

I tried below to prevent transform empty tags into single tag :

Transformer tf = TransformerFactory.newInstance().newTransformer(); tf.setOutputProperty(OutputKeys.METHOD,"html")

It's retaining empty tags.

Answer 2

I hade the same problem. This is the function to get that result.

public static String fixClosedTag(String rawXml){

    LinkedList<String[]> listTags = new LinkedList<String[]>(); 
    String splittato[] =  rawXml.split("<");

    String prettyXML="";

    int counter = 0;
    for(int x=0;x<splittato.length;x++){
        String tmpStr = splittato[x];
        int indexEnd = tmpStr.indexOf("/>");
        if(indexEnd>-1){
            String nameTag = tmpStr.substring(0, (indexEnd));
            String oldTag = "<"+ nameTag +"/>";
            String newTag = "<"+ nameTag +"></"+ nameTag +">";
            String tag[]=new String [2];
            tag[0] = oldTag;
            tag[1] = newTag;
            listTags.add(tag);
        }
    }
    prettyXML = rawXml;

    for(int y=0;y<listTags.size();y++){
        String el[] = listTags.get(y);

        prettyXML = prettyXML.replaceAll(el[0],el[1]);
    }

    return prettyXML;
}

Answer 3

If you want to control how XML is formatted, provide your own ContentHandler to prettify XML into "text". It should not matter to the receiving end (unless human) whether it receives <name></name> or <name/> - they both mean the same thing.

Answer 4

The two representations are equivalent to an XML parser, so it doesn't matter.

If you want to process XML with anything else than an XML-parser, you will end up with a lot of work and an XML-parser anyway.