An XPathFactory instance can be used to create XPath objects.

See newInstance(String uri) for lookup mechanism.

The XPathFactory class is not thread-safe. In other words, it is the application's responsibility to ensure that at most one thread is using a XPathFactory object at any given moment. Implementations are encouraged to mark methods as synchronized to protect themselves from broken clients.

XPathFactory is not re-entrant. While one of the newInstance methods is being invoked, applications may not attempt to recursively invoke a newInstance method, even from the same thread.

The default property name according to the JAXP spec.

Default Object Model URI.

Protected constructor as newInstance() or newInstance(String uri) or newInstance(String uri, String factoryClassName, ClassLoader classLoader) should be used to create a new instance of an XPathFactory.

Get a new XPathFactory instance using the default object model, DEFAULT_OBJECT_MODEL_URI, the W3C DOM.

This method is functionally equivalent to:

newInstance(DEFAULT_OBJECT_MODEL_URI)

Since the implementation for the W3C DOM is always available, this method will never fail.

Get a new XPathFactory instance using the specified object model.

To find a XPathFactory object, this method looks the following places in the following order where "the class loader" refers to the context class loader:

1. If the system property DEFAULT_PROPERTY_NAME + ":uri" is present, where uri is the parameter to this method, then its value is read as a class name. The method will try to create a new instance of this class by using the class loader, and returns it if it is successfully created.
2. ${java.home}/lib/jaxp.properties is read and the value associated with the key being the system property above is looked for. If present, the value is processed just like above.
3. Use the service-provider loading facilities, defined by the ServiceLoader class, to attempt to locate and load an implementation of the service using the default loading mechanism: the service-provider loading facility will use the current thread's context class loader to attempt to load the service. If the context class loader is null, the system class loader will be used.
   Each potential service provider is required to implement the method isObjectModelSupported(String objectModel). The first service provider found that supports the specified object model is returned.
   In case of ServiceConfigurationError an XPathFactoryConfigurationException will be thrown.
4. Platform default XPathFactory is located in a platform specific way. There must be a platform default XPathFactory for the W3C DOM, i.e. DEFAULT_OBJECT_MODEL_URI.

If everything fails, an XPathFactoryConfigurationException will be thrown.

Tip for Trouble-shooting:

See Properties.load(java.io.InputStream) for exactly how a property file is parsed. In particular, colons ':' need to be escaped in a property file, so make sure the URIs are properly escaped in it. For example:

http\://java.sun.com/jaxp/xpath/dom=org.acme.DomXPathFactory

Obtain a new instance of a XPathFactory from a factory class name. XPathFactory is returned if specified factory class supports the specified object model. This function is useful when there are multiple providers in the classpath. It gives more control to the application as it can specify which provider should be loaded.

Tip for Trouble-shooting

Setting the jaxp.debug system property will cause this method to print a lot of debug messages to System.err about what it is doing and where it is looking at.

If you have problems try:

java -Djaxp.debug=1 YourProgram ....

Is specified object model supported by this XPathFactory?

Set a feature for this XPathFactory and XPaths created by this factory.

Feature names are fully qualified URIs. Implementations may define their own features. An XPathFactoryConfigurationException is thrown if this XPathFactory or the XPaths it creates cannot support the feature. It is possible for an XPathFactory to expose a feature value but be unable to change its state.

All implementations are required to support the XMLConstants.FEATURE_SECURE_PROCESSING feature. When the feature is true, any reference to an external function is an error. Under these conditions, the implementation must not call the XPathFunctionResolver and must throw an XPathFunctionException.

Get the state of the named feature.

Feature names are fully qualified URIs. Implementations may define their own features. An XPathFactoryConfigurationException is thrown if this XPathFactory or the XPaths it creates cannot support the feature. It is possible for an XPathFactory to expose a feature value but be unable to change its state.

Establish a default variable resolver.

Any XPath objects constructed from this factory will use the specified resolver by default.

A NullPointerException is thrown if resolver is null.

Establish a default function resolver.

Any XPath objects constructed from this factory will use the specified resolver by default.

A NullPointerException is thrown if resolver is null.

Return a new XPath using the underlying object model determined when the XPathFactory was instantiated.