[Springframework-developer] sax-based parser for xml bean definition

[Eugene K. <eu...@md...>]

Folks,

   I've implemented a sax-based parser for Spring's XML bean 
definition and wonder if you'd be interested to integrate this into 
Spring framework. this class can be used in place of the current 
DOM-based parser as well as an lightweight adapter for runtime app 
context generators such as xslt-based tools or tools like Jacn (even 
so I believe Jacn should directly generate Spring factories without 
intermediate XML representation).

   I run all existing tests from xml package and they all seem working 
just fine. That however required to have copies of 
XmlBeanDefinitionReaderand and XmlBeanFactory patched to work with my 
parser.

   In my tests this parser is little bit faster then current DOM-based 
parser and in my opinion it is structured little better then DOM-based 
parser. Basically is is sort-of stripped-down Digester (stack-based 
state machine) with declarative definitions for parsing rules. 
Interestingly the same rules could be used with StAX-based parser with 
very minimal changes or even without changes using adapter for SAX 
Attributes instance used in rule params.

   Also note that current XmlBeanDefinitionReader class is tight to 
DOM-based API and does not allow to hookup abstract XML parsers (e.g. 
SAX or StAX). This make impossible to substiture custom non-DOM XML 
parser to XmlBeanFactory.

   regards,
   Eugene