Path to XML DTD for DBUnit in multi-module Java/Maven project?

Question

I have a multi-module maven project. Within the persist module I have a number of XML files data files that reference a DTD:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE myapp-data SYSTEM "myapp-data.dtd" >

<dataset>
      .....omitted for brevity....
</dataset>

The DTD is stored in the same directory with the XML files and even Eclipse reports these XML files as valid.

However, when I run the application, the DBUnit FlatXMLDataSet throws a FileNotFound exception because it cannot located the DTD. It is apparently looking for the DTD in the root project directory (e.g. myproject/). I would have expected it to look for the DTD in the same directory as the XML file itself (e.g. myproject/persist/target/test-data).

Looking at the DBUnit source code, it has this to say about it "Relative DOCTYPE uri are resolved from the current working dicrectory."

What's a good way to fix this?

Answer 1

OK, I think I figured this one out. Thank goodness for open source.

There is a method on FlatXmlDataSetBuilder that takes a stream to the DTD. It's crazy that this is a public method IMO, but then again, its crazy that DBUnit doesn't look in the same directory as the XML for the dtd file. So here it is:

String dtdResourceName = "classpath:test-data/myapp-data.dtd";      
Resource res = applicationContext.getResource(dtdResourceName);
builder.setMetaDataSetFromDtd(res.getInputStream());

Now I leave the DOCTYPE declaration with the dtd in the same directory as the XML and use this hack to fool DBUnit into doing the Right Thing.