how to read XML file in Java?

[themoffster]

Hi, I recently implemented this for my Chess program that i have been writing on and off whenever i can be bothered.
Fire this code into Eclipse and add the jar file to the classpath.

package com.al.export;

import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
import java.io.BufferedOutputStream;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.BufferedWriter;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.FileWriter;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.ObjectInputStream;
import java.io.ObjectOutputStream;

import com.al.board.Board;
import com.al.board.Square;
import com.al.game.BlackTeam;
import com.al.game.WhiteTeam;
import com.al.pieces.Bishop;
import com.al.pieces.King;
import com.al.pieces.Knight;
import com.al.pieces.Pawn;
import com.al.pieces.Queen;
import com.al.pieces.Rook;
import com.thoughtworks.xstream.XStream;
import com.thoughtworks.xstream.io.xml.DomDriver;

public class XMLConverter{
	
	public static boolean saveStringToFile(String fileName, String saveString) {
		boolean saved = false;
		BufferedWriter bw = null;
		try {
			bw = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(fileName));
			try {
				bw.write(saveString);
				saved = true;
			}
			finally {
				bw.close();
			}
		}
		catch (IOException ex) {
			ex.printStackTrace();
		}
		return saved;
	}
	
	public static String getStringFromFile(String fileName) {
		BufferedReader br = null;
		StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
		try {
			br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(fileName));
			try {
				String s;
				while ((s = br.readLine()) != null) {
					//add linefeed back since stripped by readline()
					sb.append(s);
					sb.append("\n");
				}
			}
			finally {
				br.close();
			}
		}
		catch (IOException ex) {
			ex.printStackTrace();
		}
		return sb.toString();
	}
	
	public static String convertToXML(Board board) {
		XStream xstream = new XStream(new DomDriver());
		xstream.setMode(XStream.ID_REFERENCES);
		xstream.alias("board", Board.class);
		xstream.alias("square", Square.class);
		xstream.alias("whiteTeam", WhiteTeam.class);
		xstream.alias("blackTeam", BlackTeam.class);
		xstream.alias("pawn", Pawn.class);
		xstream.alias("rook", Rook.class);
		xstream.alias("knight", Knight.class);
		xstream.alias("bishop", Bishop.class);
		xstream.alias("queen", Queen.class);
		xstream.alias("king", King.class);
		return xstream.toXML(board);
	}
	
	public static Board convertFromXML(String xMLString) {
		Board board = null;
		XStream xstream = new XStream(new DomDriver());
		xstream.setMode(XStream.ID_REFERENCES);
		xstream.alias("board", Board.class);
		xstream.alias("square", Square.class);
		xstream.alias("whiteTeam", WhiteTeam.class);
		xstream.alias("blackTeam", BlackTeam.class);
		xstream.alias("pawn", Pawn.class);
		xstream.alias("rook", Rook.class);
		xstream.alias("knight", Knight.class);
		xstream.alias("bishop", Bishop.class);
		xstream.alias("queen", Queen.class);
		xstream.alias("king", King.class);
		Object obj = xstream.fromXML(xMLString);
		if (obj instanceof Board) {
			board = (Board) obj;
		}
		return board;
	}
	
	public static boolean saveBoardToXMLFile(String fileName, Board board) {
		return saveStringToFile(fileName, convertToXML(board));
	}
	
	public static Board getBoardFromXMLFile(String fileName) {
		return convertFromXML(getStringFromFile(fileName));
	}
	
	public static boolean saveBoardToSerialFile(String fileName, Board board) {
		boolean saved = false;
		try {
			ObjectOutputStream oos = new ObjectOutputStream(new BufferedOutputStream(new FileOutputStream(fileName)));
			try {
				oos.writeObject(board);
				saved = true;
			}
			finally {
				oos.close();
			}
		}
		catch (Exception ex) {
			ex.printStackTrace();
		}
		return saved;
	}

	public static Board getBoardFromSerialFile(String fileName) {
		Board board = null;
		try {
			ObjectInputStream ois = new ObjectInputStream(new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(fileName)));
			try {
				Object obj = ois.readObject();
				if (obj instanceof Board) {
					board = (Board) obj;
				}
			}
			finally {
				ois.close();
			}
		}
		catch (Exception ex) {
			ex.printStackTrace();
		}
		return board;
	}
}

There are obviously references to Pieces, Boards etc. which you would replace with your classes, but I'll leave that to you.