jdom/xalan changes attribute order

[bettyboo1701]

Hello,

hope you can help,

we create a web application using xml+jdom+xslt


<node attribute1="this" attribute2="that" attribute3="something" attribute4="somethingelse">

how can we tell jdom that it has to keep this order?

as it has to create nodes on it's own, it mixes the attributes of the node, i.e.

<node attribute2="that" attribute4="somethingelse" attribute1="this" attribute3="something" >

any ideas??
bettina

 

[jel]

In xml, attributes don't really have an order.
You might say that a 'brown-eyed handsome man' is the same as a 'handsome brown-eyed man'.
Nodes do have an order, (for example: in x-path expressions you can select the 'preceding nodes') so you might consider to use childnodes instead of attributes.
If order is that important I would add an attribute 'SerialNr' or whatever to this childnode, this is much easier to handle, and is indepedent of the actual order of the nodes in the xml file.

That leaves one qustion: is order that important in your case?
Usually, attributes are referred to by name, so order doesn't matter.