What is Java API for XML Processing (JAXP)?
The Java API for XML Processing, or “JAXP” for short, enables applications to parse and transform XML documents using an API that is independent of a particular XML processor implementation. JAXP also provides a pluggability feature which enables applications to easily switch between particular XML processor implementations. To achieve the goal of XML processor independence, an application should limit itself to the JAXP API and avoid implementation-dependent APIs. This may or may not be easy depending on the application. JAXP includes industry standard APIs such as DOM and SAX. The reason for the existance of JAXP is to facilitate the use of XML on the Java platform. For example, current APIs such as DOM Level 2 do not provide a method to bootstrap a DOM Document object from an XML input document, JAXP does. (When DOM Level 3 provides this functionality, a new version of the JAXP specification will probably support the new Level 3 scheme also.) Other parts of JAXP such as the javax.xm
