I have a session bean that I am using to get Categories from the ebay API for my
application. The categories are returned as an XML stream. I used SAX to write a
parser to parse the XML stream and then insert the categories into a database. I have
an entity bean that handles the insertion. What I did was pass a reference to the bean
class of the session bean in the constructor for the XML parser so I could call the method
to insert into the database after the parser has seen each category. My question is, is
this considered bad design passing a reference to the bean to the java class. It is
packaged in the same JAR with the beans. Here is the code.

***********************
THE XML PARSER
***********************
package ebaycategories;

import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
import org.xml.sax.helpers.DefaultHandler;
import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory;
import javax.xml.parsers.SAXParser;
import org.xml.sax.Attributes;
import java.io.*;

public class EbayCategoryParser extends DefaultHandler
{

//this is the bean reference
private EbayCategoryUpdaterBean updaterRef;
private SAXParserFactory factory;
private SAXParser parser;

private CategoryElement ebay;
private CategoryElement ebaytime;
private CategoryElement categories;
private CategoryElement version;
private CategoryElement updategmttime;
private CategoryElement updatetime;
private CategoryElement category;
private CategoryElement categoryid;
private CategoryElement categorylevel;
private CategoryElement categoryname;
private CategoryElement categoryparentid;
private CategoryElement isexpired;
private CategoryElement isintlautosfixed;
private CategoryElement isvirtual;
private CategoryElement leafcategory;

private EbayCategory ebayCategory;

public EbayCategoryParser(EbayCategoryUpdaterBean ref)
{
updaterRef=ref;

try
{
factory=SAXParserFactory.newInstance();
parser=factory.newSAXParser();
}
catch(Exception EX)
{
}

ebay=new CategoryElement("eBay");
ebaytime=new CategoryElement("EbayTime");
categories=new CategoryElement("Categories");
version=new CategoryElement("Version");
updategmttime=new CategoryElement("UpdateGMTTime");
updatetime=new CategoryElement("UpdateTime");
category=new CategoryElement("Category");
categoryid=new CategoryElement("CategoryId");
categorylevel=new CategoryElement("CategoryLevel");
categoryname=new CategoryElement("CategoryName");
categoryparentid=new CategoryElement("CategoryParentId");
isexpired=new CategoryElement("IsExpired");
isintlautosfixed=new CategoryElement("IsIntlAutosFixed");
isvirtual=new CategoryElement("IsVirtual");
leafcategory=new CategoryElement("LeafCategory");
}

public void parseCategories(InputStream is)
{
try
{
parser.parse(is,this);
}
catch(Exception EX)
{
}
}

public void startElement(String URI, String localName,
String qName, Attributes attributes)
throws SAXException
{
if(qName==ebay.getName())ebay.changeState();
if(qName==ebaytime.getName())ebaytime.changeState();
if(qName==categories.getName())categories.changeState();
if(qName==version.getName())version.changeState();
if(qName==updategmttime.getName())updategmttime.changeState();
if(qName==updatetime.getName())updatetime.changeState();
if(qName==category.getName())
{
ebayCategory=new EbayCategory();
category.changeState();
}
if(qName==categoryid.getName())categoryid.changeState();
if(qName==categorylevel.getName())categorylevel.changeState();
if(qName==categoryname.getName())categoryname.changeState();
if(qName==categoryparentid.getName())categoryparentid.changeState();
if(qName==isexpired.getName())isexpired.changeState();
if(qName==isintlautosfixed.getName())isintlautosfixed.changeState();
if(qName==isvirtual.getName())isvirtual.changeState();
if(qName==leafcategory.getName())leafcategory.changeState();
}

public void endElement(String URI, String localName, String qName)
throws SAXException
{
if(qName==ebay.getName())ebay.changeState();
if(qName==ebaytime.getName())ebaytime.changeState();
if(qName==categories.getName())categories.changeState();
if(qName==version.getName())version.changeState();
if(qName==updategmttime.getName())updategmttime.changeState();
if(qName==updatetime.getName())updatetime.changeState();
if(qName==category.getName())
{
//here is where it calls the method on the bean to insert the Category
updaterRef.addEbayCategory(ebayCategory);
category.changeState();
ebayCategory=null;
}
if(qName==categoryid.getName())categoryid.changeState();
if(qName==categorylevel.getName())categorylevel.changeState();
if(qName==categoryname.getName())categoryname.changeState();
if(qName==categoryparentid.getName())categoryparentid.changeState();
if(qName==isexpired.getName())isexpired.changeState();
if(qName==isintlautosfixed.getName())isintlautosfixed.changeState();
if(qName==isvirtual.getName())isvirtual.changeState();
if(qName==leafcategory.getName())leafcategory.changeState();
}

public void characters(char [] ch, int start, int length)
throws SAXException
{
String chars=new String(ch,start,length);

if(ebay.in())
{
if(categories.in())
{
if(category.in())
{
if(categoryid.in())
{
ebayCategory=new EbayCategory();
ebayCategory.setCategoryId(chars);
}

if(categorylevel.in())
{
ebayCategory.setCategoryLevel(chars);
}

if(categoryname.in())
{
ebayCategory.setCategoryName(chars);
}

if(categoryparentid.in())
{
ebayCategory.setCategoryParentId(chars);
}

if(isexpired.in())
{
if(Integer.parseInt(chars)==0)
ebayCategory.setIsExpired(false);
else
ebayCategory.setIsExpired(true);
}

if(isintlautosfixed.in())
{
if(Integer.parseInt(chars)==0)
ebayCategory.setIsIntlAutosFixedCat(false);
else
ebayCategory.setIsIntlAutosFixedCat(true);
}

if(isvirtual.in())
{
if(Integer.parseInt(chars)==0)
ebayCategory.setIsVirtual(false);
else
ebayCategory.setIsVirtual(true);
}

if(leafcategory.in())
{
if(Integer.parseInt(chars)==0)
ebayCategory.setLeafCategory(false);
else
ebayCategory.setLeafCategory(true);
}
}
}
}
}
}

class CategoryElement
{
private String name;
private boolean flag;

public CategoryElement(String name)
{
this.name=name;
flag=false;
}

public String getName()
{
return name;
}

public boolean in()
{
return flag;
}

public void changeState()
{
flag=!flag;
}
}


*****************************************
The session bean
*****************************************
package ebaycategories;

import javax.ejb.SessionBean;
import javax.ejb.SessionContext;
import javax.naming.InitialContext;
import javax.naming.NamingException;
import javax.net.ssl.HttpsURLConnection;
import java.net.*;
import java.io.*;

public class EbayCategoryUpdaterBean implements SessionBean
{
private EbayCategoryLocalHome ebayCategoryLocalHome;

//here is the parser
private EbayCategoryParser ebayCategoryParser;

private URL sandbox;
private HttpsURLConnection sandboxConn;

public void updateEbayCategories()
{
try
{
sandbox=new URL(sandboxURL);
sandboxConn=(HttpsURLConnection)sandbox.openConnection();

sandboxConn.setDoInput(true);
sandboxConn.setDoOutput(true);

sandboxConn.setRequestMethod("POST");

sandboxConn.addRequestProperty("X-EBAY-API-COMPATIBILITY-LEVEL",compatibilityLevel);
sandboxConn.addRequestProperty("X-EBAY-API-SESSION-CERTIFICATE",sessionCertificate);
sandboxConn.addRequestProperty("X-EBAY-API-DEV-NAME",devName);
sandboxConn.addRequestProperty("X-EBAY-API-APP-NAME",appName);
sandboxConn.addRequestProperty("X-EBAY-API-CERT-NAME",certName);
sandboxConn.addRequestProperty("X-EBAY-API-CALL-NAME",callName);
sandboxConn.addRequestProperty("X-EBAY-API-DETAIL-LEVEL",detailLevel);
sandboxConn.addRequestProperty("X-EBAY-API-SITEID",siteID);
sandboxConn.addRequestProperty("Content-Type",contentType);

OutputStream output = sandboxConn.getOutputStream();
PrintStream sendToSandbox = new PrintStream(output);

sendToSandbox.print(xmlFunctionCall);
sendToSandbox.close();

InputStream input = sandboxConn.getInputStream();

ebayCategoryParser.parseCategories(input);
//BufferedInputStream fromSandbox = new BufferedInputStream(input);
}
catch(Exception EX)
{
}
}

public void addEbayCategory(EbayCategory ebayCategory)
{
EbayCategoryLocal ebayCategoryLocal=null;
try
{
ebayCategoryLocal=ebayCategoryLocalHome.create(ebayCategory.getCategoryId(),
ebayCategory.getCategoryLevel(),ebayCategory.getCategoryName(),
ebayCategory.getCategoryParentId(),""+ebayCategory.isIsExpired(),
""+ebayCategory.isIsIntlAutosFixedCat(),""+ebayCategory.isIsVirtual(),
""+ebayCategory.isLeafCategory());
}
catch(javax.ejb.CreateException CEX)
{
}
}

public void ejbCreate()
{
try
{
ebayCategoryLocalHome=getEbayCategoryLocalHome();
}
catch(NamingException NEX)
{
}
//construct the parser with a reference to this bean class
ebayCategoryParser=new EbayCategoryParser(this);
}

public void ejbActivate()
{
}

public void ejbPassivate()
{
}

public void ejbRemove()
{
}

public void setSessionContext(SessionContext ctx)
{
}

private EbayCategoryLocalHome getEbayCategoryLocalHome() throws NamingException
{
final InitialContext context = new InitialContext();
return (EbayCategoryLocalHome)context.lookup("java:comp/env/ejb/local/EbayCategory");
}



//for connecting to ebay
static final String sandboxURL = "https://api.sandbox.ebay.com/ws/api.dll";

static final String DevID = "devid";
static final String AppID = "appid";
static final String CertID = "certid";
static final String compatibilityLevel = "305";
static final String sessionCertificate = DevID + ";" + AppID + ";" + CertID;
static final String devName = DevID;
static final String appName = AppID;
static final String certName = CertID;
static final String callName = "GetCategories";
static final String siteID = "0";
static final String detailLevel = "1";
static final String contentType = "text/xml";

static final String authToken = "authtoken";

static final String xmlFunctionCall =
"<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>" +
"" +
""+authToken+"" +
"1" +
"1" +
"0" +
"GetCategories" +
"1" +
"0" +
"";
}


If anyone has an opinion on this or knows a better design I would greatly
appreciate it.