## Package com.icl.saxon.handlers

Package overview: com.icl.saxon.handlers

See:
Description

Class Summary
ElementHandler: ElementHandler is a NodeHandler used to process elements.
ElementHandlerBase: This class is the default element handler from which user-defined element handlers can inherit.

## Package com.icl.saxon.handlers Description

# Package overview: com.icl.saxon.handlers

This package provides the interface definitions for node handlers.

This package is much reduced in scope since Saxon 5.5, reflecting that most users are now using XSLT template rules rather than Java node handlers. Most of the standard node handlers, and the specialized interfaces for different kinds of node, have been withdrawn: they can be recreated if necessary as part of the application.

# Handler interfaces

The top-level handler interface is called NodeHandler. This defines the processing of any kind of node: elements, attributes, and character content.

Below this level is the interface ElementHandler and the class ElementHandlerBase. You can define your own handlers as subclasses of ElementHandlerBase.

## The ElementHandler interface

The class ElementHandlerBase is provided as an element handler that does nothing, other than calling applyTemplates() to process its children. Your own element handlers will generally be subclasses of ElementHandlerBase.

There is one method you can override: startElement(). It is called when an element node is to be processed. There are two arguments, the ElementInfo representing the element node, and the Context object. The element will always be the current node (and also the context node) accessible via the Context object.

Michael H. Kay
20 September 2000