Welcome to the future! Xerces2 is the next generation of high performance, fully compliant XML parsers in the Apache Xerces family. This new version of Xerces introduces the Xerces Native Interface (XNI), a complete framework for building parser components and configurations that is extremely modular and easy to program.

The Apache Xerces2 parser is the reference implementation of XNI but other parser components, configurations, and parsers can be written using the Xerces Native Interface. For complete design and implementation documents, refer to the XNI Manual.

Xerces 2 is a fully conforming XML Schema processor. For more information, refer to the XML Schema page.

Xerces 2 also provides a partial implementation of Document Object Model Level 3 Core, Load and Save and Abstract Schemas [deprecated] Working Drafts. For more information, refer to the DOM Level 3 Implementation page.

Before reporting a bug in BugZilla, please read the Bugzilla FAQ.

You can find the latest Xerces 2 jars here.

The Xerces2 Java Parser 2.1.0 supports the following standards and APIs:

• eXtensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 Second Edition Recommendation
• Namespaces in XML Recommendation
• Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Core, Events, and Traversal and Range Recommendations
• Simple API for XML (SAX) 2.0 Core, and Extension
• Java APIs for XML Processing (JAXP) 1.1
• XML Schema 1.0 Structures and Datatypes Recommendations

According to the DOM Level 3 specification and DOM Level 2 errata the createElementNS and createAttributeNS methods convert empty string namespaceURI to null. Please, let us know if this change affects your application.

The Xerces2 Java Parser 2.1.0 fixes bugs and adds new functionality.

• Added xni.XMLDocumentHandler.setDocumentSource/getDocumentSource and XMLDocumentSource.getDocumentHandler methods.
• Expose PSVI via DOM and SAX.
• Added DOM Level 3 DOMBuilderFilter and DOMBuilderWriter implementation.

For a more complete list of changes, refer to the Release Information page.

Xerces2 is a nearly complete rewrite of the Xerces 1.x codebase in order to make the code cleaner, more modular, and easier to maintain. It includes a completely redesigned and rewritten XML Schema validation engine. Applications using only the standard interfaces such as JAXP, DOM, and SAX should not see any differences.

The Xerces-J 2.1.0 release is available in source code and precompiled binary (JAR files) form. Both Xerces-J packages are made available under the Apache Software License.