Android XML file parsing file not found exception

Question

I'm new at Android and trying to get a local XML file and get data and display it .

Here's my code:

public String GetXmlData()
{
    DocumentBuilderFactory builderFactory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
    DocumentBuilder builder = null;
    try
    {
        builder = builderFactory.newDocumentBuilder();
        InputStream is = getAssets().open("words.xml");
        Document document = builder.parse(new FileInputStream("C:\\Users\\Ocean\\AndroidStudioProjects\\Deneme1Project\\Deneme1\\build\\res\\assets\\words.xml"));
        Element rootElement = document.getDocumentElement();

        NodeList nodes = rootElement.getChildNodes();

        for(int i=0; i<nodes.getLength(); i++){
            Node node = nodes.item(i);

            if(node instanceof Element)
            {
                //a child element to process
                Element child = (Element) node;
                title = child.getAttribute("title");
                String author= child.getAttribute("author");
                String year= child.getAttribute("year");
            }
        }
        return title;
    }
    catch (Exception e)
    {
        e.printStackTrace();
        return e.toString();
    }

}

My first question where should I put this XML file? Inside res I created folder and named it assets an put inside it I have rs and r folders :S File not found Exception (File is there :P)

Answer 1

This points to your local computer, when you deploy an APK you can't reference.

Document document = builder.parse(new FileInputStream("C:\\Users\\Ocean\\AndroidStudioProjects\\Deneme1Project\\Deneme1\\build\\res\\assets\\words.xml"));

Try instead:

getAssets().open("words.xml");

Where words.xml is in your assets directory. This will work from an Activity, or if you have a Context you can call getAssets() on the context, i.e. context.getAssets().

Answer 2

You don't need to create a folder named assets in res folder because there is already an assets folder in default project. If you put the file in default assets folder, you can call by:

getAssets().open("words.xml");

if you want to use another custom folder:

getAssets().open("myfiles/words.xml");

Answer 3

You could place your XML file in any of the below mentioned locations:

1) sdcard , And to access it

File wordsXML = new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory() + "/SomeFolderName/" + "words.xml");
FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(wordsXML);

Note: you could edit the xml file even after installing the application

2) res/raw folder

FileInputStream fis =(FileInputStream) getResources.openRawResource(R.raw.words);

3) res/assets folder

InputStream is = (InputStream) getAssets().open("words.xml");

Answer 4

Put your xml file in res/raw (if raw folder doesn't exists under res create it) folder (lets say its words.xml). After that call it like this:

FileInputStream fis =(FileInputStream) getResources.openRawResource(
    R.raw.words);

Document document = builder.parse(new FileInputStream(fis));