Create elements and/or an attribute or a text node along a path in xml.

XML - create xml along the xpath

/**
 * Create elements and/or an attribute or a text node along a path in xml.
 * Examples: let root be a xml element
 *   <foo/>
 *   
 * To create a sub-element bar with an attribute id set to a value '5':
 *   Node n = createXmlPath(root, "/foo/bar/@id", "5");
 * 
 * To create a sub-element bar with a text content set to a value '7':
 *   Node n = createXmlPath(root, "/foo/bar/text()", "7);
 *   
 * To create an empty sub-element bar
 *   Node n = createXmlPath(root, "/foo/bar", null); 
 * 
 * @param root element under which new elements and/or text or attribute nodes will be created.
 * @param xpath xpath expression, must be in a form as examples show.
 * @param nodeValue Value for a text node or an attribute if present at the end of the path.
 * @return The last element on the path.
 * @throws XPathExpressionException 
 */
public static Node createXmlPath(Element root, String xpath, String nodeValue) throws XPathExpressionException {
	// try to select nodes according to xpath
	XPath xp = XPathFactory.newInstance().newXPath();
	NodeList ns = (NodeList) xp.evaluate(xpath, root, XPathConstants.NODESET);
	Node n = ns.getLength() > 0 ? ns.item(0) : null;	
		
	// create elements if the expression returns zero nodes
	if (n == null) {
		// parse the expression - get the last element from the xpath
		String pattern = "(.*)/([A-Za-z0-9\\-_\\(\\)@]+)$"; 
		Pattern p = Pattern.compile(pattern);
		Matcher m = p.matcher(xpath);
		if (m.matches()) {
			// recursive call - create the elements on the path that does not include the last element
			Node pn = createXmlPath(root, m.group(1), null);
				
			// if the last element is a text node, 
			// create the text node and set its value to nodeValue
			if (m.group(2).equals("text()")) {
				n = root.getOwnerDocument().createTextNode(nodeValue != null ? nodeValue : "__");
				pn.appendChild(n);
				n = pn;
			} else
				// if the last element is attribute, 
				// create the attribute and set its value to nodeValue
				if (m.group(2).matches("@[A-Za-z\\-_0-9]+")) {
					Node a = root.getOwnerDocument().createAttribute(m.group(2).substring(1));
					a.setNodeValue(nodeValue != null ? nodeValue : "__");
					pn.getAttributes().setNamedItem(a);
					n = pn;
				} else {
					// otherwise create normal element
					n = root.getOwnerDocument().createElement(m.group(2));
					pn.appendChild(n);
				}
		} else
			throw new XPathExpressionException("XPath expression must match the pattern '" + pattern + "'!");
	}			
	return n;		
}

Hi,

I was trying to get this to work but was out of luck.Is there a working sample.Any inputs would be of great help