Why XML placed in /res/xml generates XmlPullParserException (no error when in /res/raw)?

Question

I place the local XML file into res/raw and then loads it into InputStreamer object. It works fine and I am able to parse its content.

When I place the same XML into res/xml, I get XmlPullParserException saying it can't find the START tag.

I use this code to fill InputStream object:

 InputStream is = getResources().openRawResource(R.raw.data);

and this line to load the XML from /res/xml:

InputStream is = context.getResources().openRawResource(R.xml.data); 

Why is this happening? If the 2nd approach is the wrong one, what is then the purpose of res/xml?

Answer 1

getXML() doesn't return an InputStream so I'm not sure how your code compiles. It returns an XMLResourceParser.

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/res/Resources.html#getXml(int)

Return an XmlResourceParser through which you can read a generic XML resource for the given resource ID.

The purpose of /res/xml is it's a handy place to store XML and later parse it! Sometimes you don't need an InputStream :)

Answer 2

You can read it like this:

void parseXml(int xmlId){
    Resources res = context.getResources();
    //Xml parserer
    XmlResourceParser parser = res.getXml(xmlResource);

    while (parser.next() != XmlPullParser.END_DOCUMENT) {

         //A start tag is reached
         if(parser.getEventType() == XmlPullParser.START_TAG){

             //Which tag is
             if(parser.getName().equalsIgnoreCase("Name"){
                 //Do something when a <Name> tag is reached
                 //and so on ...
             }
         }

    }
}