JAXP transformer Vs. XMLSerializer in Xerces

[Prasanna Kumar AG <Pr...@virtusa.com>]

What is the difference between using JAXP Transformer and XML serializer to
serialize an XML DOM.

Re: JAXP transformer Vs. XMLSerializer in Xerces

[Joseph Kesselman <ke...@us.ibm.com>]

>What is the difference between using JAXP Transformer and XML serializer 
to serialize an XML DOM.

Theoretically, or practically?

Theoretical: I believe the Transformer support is the TrAX APIs. If so, it 
isn't just serializers; they're a general transformation mechanism which 
can be used to read documents from XML, write them to XML, convert between 
DOM and SAX or vice versa... and can also be used to run things like XSLT 
stylesheets. Xalan can be invoked via TrAX, for example. The default 
should be a simple copy-document-content (the "identity 
transformation")... but depending on the implementation that may involve 
more processing of the document; the output will be semantically correct 
but may be syntactically different. A DOM serializer, on the other hand, 
is more specialized, and may or may not more accurately capture 
semantically-irrelevant details recorded in the DOM.

Practical: Xalan's current implementation of the Default Identity 
Transformation has a few minor warts, documented in Xalan's Bugzilla 
entries. Also, a dedicated DOM serializer may (or may not) be more 
efficient than sending data through the more general TrAX data paths. 
Also, the Xalan code may (or may not) currently do a better job of 
serializing to HTML, if that's your goal.

Basically, Transformation is more powerful, but may be more costly and may 
require more active involvement to get the output you want. "With power 
comes responsibilty to control that power."

______________________________________
Joe Kesselman  / IBM Research


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