Validating XML files

In the scope of different projects I often have to validate XML files. Here is my solution to verify XML files using a schema.

First of all to validate XML files in Java you need create a SchemaFactory of the W3C XML schema language and you have to compile the schema (let’s assume it’s located in /path/to/schema.xsd ):

SchemaFactory factory = SchemaFactory.newInstance ("http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema");
Schema schema = factory.newSchema (new File ("/path/to/schema.xsd"));

Now you’re able to create a validator from the schema.

Validator validator = schema.newValidator ();

In order to validate a XML file you have to read it (let’s assume it’s located in /path/to/file.xml ):

Source source = new StreamSource (new File ("/path/to/file.xml"));

Last but not least you can validate the file:

try
{
  validator.validate (source);
  System.out.println ("file is valid");
}
catch (SAXException e)
{
  System.out.println ("file is invalid:");
  System.out.println (e.getMessage ());
}