Installing JAXP 1.3 on JDK 1.4

Let me start by saying..JAXP 1.3 rocks..why?

• It supports XPath (duh !!)
• Dom level 3
• And other stuff i am still to discover.

I don't get, is it just me or XPath in jaxp is really really late. But good that its here and good news is can be used with JDK 1.4 and probably JDK 1.3 (haven't tested it). So the installation process.

1. go to jaxp.dev.java.net
2. download jaxp installation class file which has been compiled for JDK 1.4
3. java -cp . JAXPR******
4. this gives u 5 jar files (dom.jar,sax.jar,xercesImpl.jar,xalan.jar(*sigh*),jaxp-api.jar)
5. copy all jars in <java_home>/jre/lib/endorsed folder.
6. tada !!

The updating process documented on the JAXP website suggests that jaxp-api.jar should not be put in endorsed folder and should be put some where on the CLASSPATH. But as the JAXP 1.2 classes packaged with JDK 1.4 are part of rt.jar, these classes will take precedence when loading classes over any classes on the CLASSPATH. In order to avoid this, you need to have jaxp-api.jar also in the endorsed directory. As per the Endorsed Standards Override Mechanism classes specified in the endorsed directory are loaded before any internal class. so there you have it..you are off you using jaxp 1.3. I look forward to exploring more of this release.