Adding a new node before the first child in dom tree

Question

This is probably one of those easiest things to deal with but for some reason not working for me. I'm trying to add a new node after the root in dom tree.
Here's the original string:

<div class="discussionThread dt"><div class="dt_subject">2011 IS HERE!</div></div>

I'm trying to add a new node which is in the form of a string before . The final version should look like:

<div class="discussionThread dt"><div class="test">Test Val</div><div class="dt_subject">2011 IS HERE!</div></div>

As you can see, the new Test Val is being added immediately after the root div class. I've used few methods to place the node at the right place but its getting appended at the end.

Here's a sample which I referred from one of the earlier posts:

String newNode = "<div class="test">test</div>";
SAXReader reader = new SAXReader();
Document newNodeDocument = reader.read(new StringReader(newNode));
Document originalDoc = new SAXReader().read(new StringReader(content));
Element root = originalDoc.getRootElement();
Element givenNode = originalDoc.getRootElement(); 
givenNode.add(newNodeDocument.getRootElement());

This is resulting the node getting added at the end. I tried using insertBefore(), but didn't work out.

Any pointers will be highly appreciated.

Thanks

Answer 1

Why create a new Document or a new root Element? I think the shortest way is using Branch#content:

Returns the content nodes of this branch as a backed List so that the content of this branch may be modified directly using the interface. The List is backed by the Branch so that changes to the list are reflected in the branch and vice versa.

You just have to create the new Element and to add it to the root element through the List provided by content method (passing it the position index), this is my main:

public static void main(String[] args) throws DocumentException {

    SAXReader reader = new SAXReader();
    String xml = "<div class=\"discussionThread dt\"><div class=\"dt_subject\">2011 IS HERE!</div></div>";
    Document document = reader.read(new StringReader(xml));

    DefaultElement newElement = new DefaultElement("div");
    newElement.addAttribute("class", "test");
    newElement.add(new DefaultText("Test Val"));

    List content = document.getRootElement().content();
    if (content != null ) {
        content.add(0, newElement);
    }

    System.out.println(document.asXML());
}

which prints out the following xml:

<div class="discussionThread dt"><div class="test">Test Val</div><div class="dt_subject">2011 IS HERE!</div></div>

In addition, you should also consider the use of xslt when you have to transform xml.