Is there any way to store arbitrary XML content in a value?

[stain]

Something like:

<bean class=...>
    <property name="xml">
        <value>
            <myxml>
                <mydata>
                    <![CDATA[
                        my data
                    ]]>
                </mydata>
            </myxml>
        </value>
     </property>
</bean>

I know that the DTD does not allow that for the value element but is there some workaround? (beside wrapping the entire value with CDATA which as you can see I am not able to do since I already have CDATA inside my xml)

And the second question I have is somewhat related.
If I reference an external xml file inside the property value:

<bean class=...>
    <property name="xml" value="myfile.xml"/>
</bean>

And I put myfile.xml in the same directory where THIS bean context definition file is located.
How can I resolve then the absolute path of the file for my Java code? Basically, I need the path to be resolved by the Spring framework and not in my Java code which I want to keep independent of Spring.
I have read about Resource abstraction but this will introduce Spring dependency so it won't work for me.

Thanks!

[irbouho]

You may solve both "issue" by extending Spring. All you need to do is create a new FactoryBean as follows:

pakage org.adam.factory;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.FactoryBean;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.InitializingBean;
import org.springframework.binding.support.Assert;
import org.springframework.core.io.Resource;

/**
 * @author <a href="mailto:irbouh@gmail.com">Omar Irbouh</a>
 * @since 2005.10.27
 */
public class ResourceFactoryBean implements FactoryBean, InitializingBean {

  private String content = null;
  private Resource location = null;

  public Object getObject() throws Exception {
    return content;
  }

  public Class getObjectType() {
    return content.getClass();
  }

  public boolean isSingleton() {
    return true;
  }

  public void afterPropertiesSet() throws Exception {
    Assert.notNull(location);
    //you may provide a better method for reading the inputStream
    byte[] buffer = new byte[location.getInputStream().available()];
    if (location.getInputStream().read(buffer) > 0) {
      content = new String(buffer);
    }
  }

  public Resource getLocation() {
    return location;
  }

  public void setLocation(Resource location) {
    this.location = location;
  }
}

This FactoryBean can be used as follows:

<bean class=...>
    <property name="xml">
      <bean class="org.adam.factory.ResourceFactoryBean">
        <property name="location" value="classpath:myfile.xml"/>
      </bean>
    </property>
</bean>

Hope this helps.