Retrieving xml file from Web Server

[keioGirl]

If I put my xml files in Apache HttpWebServer, how can I retrive those files in java. I think File API - new File(directoryPath).listFiles() cannot be used for web applications.
And in DOM and xpath, I cannot retrive files which exists in other folders outside the Project folder. DOM cannot find it. Is there any way I can retrieve which exists in Appache HttpWebServer?

[w3user]

Each of your xml file can be identified by its url.
Use apache httpclient APIs to read the content of url.
here's the tutorial link:
hc.apache.org/httpclient-3.x/tutorial.html

sample code:
String url="your xml file url";
GetMethod method = new GetMethod(url);
int statusCode = client.executeMethod(method);
byte[] responseBody = method.getResponseBody();
String fileContent=new String(responseBody);

[keioGirl]

Thanks.
But the problem is I would like to get like 30 xml files simultaneously (example: by using some looping or like "..//localhost/8080/*.xml" though I know that *.xml doesn't work) without defining each specific url. How should I do that?

[2potatocakes]

mmmm.. I'm also really curious as to how to do this. Does anyone know?

[mox8iro]

hi,
is there any naming convention of the xml files? do you know the number of files you want to get?
if there is a specific pattern of naming the xml files maybe you will be able to retrieve them..

[Steve11235]

Without providing any specifics on how to do this, I can tell you that a Web server will provide a directory listing *if* directory listing is authorized. So, the Web server has to be configured to allow listing. It will typically provide the list as an HTML page. You can test this from a browser by //http:url/ (no page specified). I would start by getting the Web server to provide a listing and then testing with a browser, to see what the output looks like.

Web servers generally *do not* allow listing, to prevent people from seeing everything on the server, so if you don't control the server, you may not be able to get a listing.

The other option is to have whoever is posting the files either use standard names, such as name-2009-01-16-x.xml, where the x is a sequence number 1,2,3,.., or have them place a list of names in an xml file on the server and update the file contents every time they post new files.