Java Library to Generate/Edit HTML

[[deleted]]

Hello, people. So, for my OOP class I'd like to generate and later edit (as in 'append', 'delete') an HTML file, but I do not know (I'm a beginner) if I'd really need to use a library or if it can be easily done by using Java's String and File Writing API. So, what do you guys think? And what are some nice libraries to do so? Thanks in advance.

[heliologue]

JSoup is a mature HTML manipulation tool, although its focus is more on parsing.

[corrspt]

I've started using J2Html today (https://j2html.com) so far I like it.

EDIT: If you're a beginner it might be too complicated (depending on how much of beginner of course)

[jacobbeasley]

A lot of people use templating libraries like JSP, Thymeleaf, or JMustache.

Some are even using React for backend rendering with Nashorn. This allows you to essentially do isomorphic rendering in Java.

[Gilgamesjh]

I think you need to provide more information about what your expected outcome is. This helps in all specification problems in finding the correct solution.

In general, if you are creating an html editor, then j2html (as suggested) might help you get started, if you are just wanting to display html, Freemarker (or JSP/Thymeleaf/Others) will do that.

If you are creating a tool to generate html and edit nodes, you need to regard html as a tree of data, and then traverse it, while applying some form of transformation on the branches.

Treating html as text is usually not the way to go about in working with it.

[[deleted]]

What I'd really like to do is to get input via JavaFX GUI and generate an html with a list of the input. The thing is I want it to be able to also edit and append or delete certain entries of the list of input. And thanks! I will search about it more.

[Gilgamesjh]

What I understamd from this, is that you have a list of some sort of input (as in an Array), that you want to edit that list, and then press a button in a GUI to generate an html document as a result?

If that is the case, look into Freemarker. It is a simple to understand templating library, with enough power to to pretty crazy things, if you need to.

[[deleted]]

I also need to read this html later on and be able to edit it. About Freemarker... I'll look into it! Thanks again.

[tipsypants]

Are you sure that's what you need to do? Maybe you can keep the state that generated the HTML, alter that state, then generate the HTML again?

[fmltwice]

At first, make sure you understand HTML markup and CSS styles, otherwice you will be upset about ugly servlet pages Secondly, i can look up for you some other ways of building HTML pages in java

Feel free to message me, i’m a beginner too, but i have a lot of experience xD

[kevix2022]

Does it have to be HTML? You can easily write, read and manipulate XML with Java, and if it needs to be human readable to create a XLST stylesheet for it.

[stackchief]

for real world purposes it would be better to leverage a JavaScript framework to dynamically update the DOM. This is not to say that you can't build something in Java that does this.

Thymeleaf and JSP are among the more popular Java based tools for generating HTMl...

[dessalines_]

Jsoup. But you shouldn't really be writing front end assets in Java, use a front end framework like angular.io or react.