The Digester package lets you configure an XML -> Java object mapping module, which triggers certain actions called rules whenever a particular pattern of nested XML elements is recognized. A rich set of predefined rules is available for your use, or you can also create your own. Advanced features of Digester include: - Ability to plug in your own pattern matching engine, if the standard one is not sufficient for your requirements. - Optional namespace-aware processing, so that you can define rules that are relevant only to a particular XML namespace. - Encapsulation of Rules into RuleSets that can be easily and conveniently reused in more than one application that requires the same type of processing