This information was included with the SAX 1.0 distribution. In SAX 2.0, the structure and concepts remained largely the same, although several key interfaces changed incompatibly.

The SAX 1.0 Java distribution contains eleven core classes and interfaces together with three optional helper classes and five demonstration classes, but don't let these overwhelm you: there are only three interfaces that SAX parser writers need to implement, and while there are five interfaces available for application writers, simple XML applications will need only one or two of them.

These SAX classes and interfaces fall into five groups:

interfaces implemented by the parser

Parser and AttributeList (required), and Locator (optional)

interfaces implemented by the application

DocumentHandler, ErrorHandler, DTDHandler, and EntityResolver (all optional: DocumentHandler will the most important one for typical XML applications)

standard SAX classes

InputSource, SAXException, SAXParseException, HandlerBase (these are all fully implemented by SAX)

optional Java-specific helper classes in the org.xml.sax.helpers package

ParserFactory, AttributeListImpl, and LocatorImpl (these are all fully implemented by the SAX Java distribution)

Java demonstration classes in the nul package

SystemIdDemo, ByteStreamDemo, CharacterStreamDemo, and EntityDemo, all of which can be run as Java applications; there is also a DemoHandler class that all four share

Interfaces for Parser Writers (org.xml.sax package)

A SAX-conformant XML parser needs to implement only two or three simple interfaces; in fact, it is even possible (and quite common) to implement all of these interfaces in a single class (often called something like as `SAXDriver') if desired.

Parser

This is the main interface to a SAX parser: it allows the user to register handlers for callbacks, to set the locale for error reporting, and to start an XML parse.

AttributeList

This simple interface allows users to iterate through an attribute list -- the parser can implement it in the same class as the SAX driver, or implement it in a separate class (it does not need to be persistent). There is a convenience implementation available in the org.xml.sax.helpers.AttributeListImpl.

Locator

This simple interface allows users to find the current location in the XML source document -- the parser can implement it in the same class as the driver, or implement it in a second class (it does not need to be persistent).

Interfaces for Application Writers (org.xml.sax package)

A SAX application may implement any or none of the following interfaces, as required (simple XML applications may need only DocumentHandler and possibly ErrorHandler).

An application can implement all of these interfaces in a single class, if desired.

DocumentHandler

This is the interface that applications will probably use the most -- in many cases, it is the only one that they will need to implement. If an application provides an implementation of this interface, it will receive notification of basic document-related events like the start and end of elements.

ErrorHandler

If an application needs to use special error handling, then it must provide an implementation of this interface.

DTDHandler

If an application needs to work with notations and unparsed (binary) entities, it must implement this interface to receive notification of the NOTATION and ENTITY declarations.

EntityResolver

If an application needs to do redirection of URIs in documents (or other types of custom handling), it must provide an implementation of this interface.

Standard SAX Classes (org.xml.sax package)

SAX consists mostly of interfaces rather than classes, but the interfaces refer to two standard exception classes, and a third is provided for universal convenience.

These classes are useful for both parser and application writers.

InputSource

This class contains all of the necessary information for a single input source, including a public identifier, system identifier, byte stream, and character stream (as appropriate). The application must instantiate at least one InputSource for the Parser, and the EntityHandler may instantiate others.

SAXException

This class represents a general SAX exception.

SAXParseException

This class represents a SAX exception tied to a specific point in an XML source document.

HandlerBase

This class provides default implementations for DocumentHandler, ErrorHandler, DTDHandler, and EntityResolver: parser writers can use this to provide a default implementation when the user does not specify handlers, and application writers can subclass this to simplify handler writing.

Java-Specific Helper Classes (org.xml.sax.helpers package)

These classes are not part of the core SAX distribution, and may not be available in SAX implementations in other languages: they are provided simply as a convenience for Java programmers.

ParserFactory

An application can use the static methods in this class to load SAX parsers dynamically at run time, based on the class name.

AttributeListImpl

An application can use this convenience class to make a persistent copy of an AttributeList, or parser can use it to supply a default implementation of AttributeList to the application.

LocatorImpl

An application can use this convenience class to make a persistent snapshot of a Locator's values at a specific point in the parse.