JAXP Factory Interfaces

Saxon implements a number of JAXP interfaces, notably the APIs for transformation, XPath processing, and validation.

For transformation, the root object of the API is the JAXP TransformerFactory. Saxon provides three implementations of this interface: net.sf.saxon.TransformerFactoryImpl for Saxon-HE, and com.saxonica.config.ProfessionalTransformerFactory and com.saxonica.config.EnterpriseTransformerFactory for Saxon-PE and Saxon-EE respectively. This interface provides methods getAttribute(name) and setAttribute(name, value) which correspond directly to the methods getConfigurationProperty(name) and setConfigurationProperty(name, value) on the underlying Configuration object. By casting from the JAXP interface to the Saxon implementation class it is also possible to call the getConfiguration method which exposes the Configuration object directly.

The Saxon-PE and Saxon-EE implementations of the TransformerFactory also allow the configuration property FeatureKeys.CONFIGURATION_FILE to be set. The value is a filename containing the name of a configuration file, which must have the format described in Configuration file. This causes any previously-initialized configuration to be discarded, and replaced with a new Configuration object built from the settings in the specified configuration file.

The JAXP XPathFactory interface has a general-purpose configuration mechanism in the form of the two methods setFeature() and getFeature(). These can be used to set/get all boolean-valued configuration options in the underlying Saxon Configuration, as well as the options defined in the JAXP interface itself. To set configuration options that are not boolean-valued, it is necessary to navigate to the underlying Configuration object and use its native interfaces. Saxon's implementation class for the XPathFactory is net.sf.saxon.xpath.XPathFactoryImpl, regardless which Saxon edition is in use.

Note that although Saxon implements the JAXP XPath API, it is rarely possible to use it in a way that has no dependencies on the Saxon implementation, partly because of the requirement for all Saxon tasks to run under the same Configuration. When using the XPath API, therefore, the Configuration object is usually exposed to the application.

Saxon-EE also implements the JAXP SchemaFactory in class com.saxonica.jaxp.SchemaFactoryImpl. The interface offers methods getProperty(name) and setProperty(name, value) which map to the underlying methods in the Saxon Configuration; again, it is also possible to cast to the Saxon implementation class and call configuration-setting methods directly.