18.3. Manipulating XML data

You can also re-read and update XML documents in the application. You can do this by obtaining a dom4j session:
Document doc = ....;
       
Session session = factory.openSession();
Session dom4jSession = session.getSession(EntityMode.DOM4J);
Transaction tx = session.beginTransaction();

List results = dom4jSession
    .createQuery("from Customer c left join fetch c.accounts where c.lastName like :lastName")
    .list();
for ( int i=0; i<results.size(); i++ ) {
    //add the customer data to the XML document
    Element customer = (Element) results.get(i);
    doc.add(customer);
}

tx.commit();
session.close();
Session session = factory.openSession();
Session dom4jSession = session.getSession(EntityMode.DOM4J);
Transaction tx = session.beginTransaction();

Element cust = (Element) dom4jSession.get("Customer", customerId);
for ( int i=0; i<results.size(); i++ ) {
    Element customer = (Element) results.get(i);
    //change the customer name in the XML and database
    Element name = customer.element("name");
    name.element("first-name").setText(firstName);
    name.element("initial").setText(initial);
    name.element("last-name").setText(lastName);
}

tx.commit();
session.close();
When implementing XML-based data import/export, it is useful to combine this feature with Hibernate's replicate() operation.