The compiler tree API is in the com.sun.source.doctree package. It provides several interfaces to document source-level comments. These APIs are represented as abstract syntax trees (ASTs).
There are two enums as follows:
- AttributeTree.ValueKind, with the following constants:
- DOUBLE
- EMPTY
- SINGLE
- UNQUOTED
- DocTree.Kind, with the following constants:
- ATTRIBUTE
- AUTHOR
- CODE
- COMMENT
- DEPRECATED
- DOC_COMMENT
- DOC_ROOT
- END_ELEMENT
- ENTITY
- ERRONEOUS
- EXCEPTION
- IDENTIFIER
- INHERIT_DOC
- LINK
- LINK_PLAIN
- LITERAL
- OTHER
- PARAM
- REFERENCE
- RETURN
- SEE
- SERIAL
- SERIAL_DATA
- SERIAL_FIELD
- SINCE
- START_ELEMENT
- TEXT
- THROWS
- UNKNOWN_BLOCK_TAG
- UNKNOWN_INLINE_TAG
- VALUE
- VERSION
The com.sun.source.doctree package contains several interfaces. They are detailed in the following table:
| Interface name | Extends | A tree node for | Non-inherited methods |
| AttributeTree | DocTree | A HTML element | getName(), getValue(), getValueKind() |
| AuthorTree | BlockTagTree, DocTree | @author block tag | getName() |
| BlockTagTree | DocTree | The base class for different types of block tags | getTagName() |
| CommentTree | DocTree | An embedded HTML comment with the following HTML tags—<!--text--> | getBody() |
| DeprecatedTree | BlockTagTree | @deprecated block tag | getBody() |
| DocCommentTree | DocTree | Body block tags | getBlockTags(), getBody(), getFirstSentence() |
| DocRootTree | InlineTagTree | @docroot inline tag | N/A |
| DocTree | N/A | A common interface for all | accept(DocTreeVisitor<R,D>visitor,Ddata), getKind() |
| DocTreeVisitor<R,P> | N/A | R = return type of visitor's methods; P = type of the additional parameter | visitAttribute(AttributeTree node, P p), visitAuthor(AuthorTree node, P p), visitComment(CommentTree node, P p), visitDeprecated(DeprecatedTree node, P p), visitDocComment(DocCommentTree node, P p), visitDocRoot(DocRootTree node, P p), visitEndElement(EndElementTree node, P p), visitEntity(EntityTree node, P p), visitErroneous(ErroneousTree node, P p), visitIdentifier(IdentifierTree node, P p), visitInheritDoc(InheritDocTree node, P p), visitLink(LinkTree node, P p), visitLiteral(LiteralTree node, P p), visitOther(DocTree node, P p), visitParam(ParamTree node, P p), visitReference(ReferenceTree node, P p), visitReturn(ReturnTree node, P p), visitSee(SeeTree node, P p), visitSerial(SerialTree node, P p), visitSerialData(SerialDataTree node, P p), visitSerialField(SerialFieldTree node, P p), visitSince(SinceTree node, P p), visitStartElement(StartElementTree node, P p), visitText(TextTree node, P p), visitThrows(ThrowsTree node, P p), visitUnknownBlockTag(UnknownBlockTagTree node, P p), visitUnknownInlineTag(UnknownInlineTagTree node, P p), visitValue(ValueTree node, P p), visitVersion(VersionTree node, P p) |
| EndElementTree | DocTree | End of an HTML element </name> | getName() |
| EntityTree | DocTree | An HTML entity | getName() |
| ErroneousTree | TextTree | This is for malformed text | getDiagnostic() |
| IdentifierTree | DocTree | An identifier in a comment | getName() |
| InheritDocTree | InlineTagTree | @inheritDoc inline tag | N/A |
| InlineTagTree | DocTree | A common interface for inline tags | getTagName() |
| LinkTree | InlineTagTree | @link or @linkplan inline tags | getLabel(), getReference() |
| LiteralTree | InlineTagTree | @literal or @code inline tags | getBody() |
| ParamTree | BlockTagTree | @param block tags | getDescription(), getName(), isTypeParameter() |
| ReferenceTree | DocTree | Used to reference a Java lang element | getSignature() |
| ReturnTree | BlockTagTree | @return block tags | getDescription() |
| SeeTree | BlockTagTree | @see block tags | getReference() |
| SerialDataTree | BlockTagTree | @serialData block tags | getDescription() |
| SerialFieldTree | BlockTagTree | @serialData block tags and @serialField field names and descriptions | getDescription(), getName(), getType() |
| SerialTree | BlockTagTree | @serial block tags | getDescription() |
| SinceTree | BlockTagTree | @since block tags | getBody() |
| StartElementTree | DocTree | Start of an HTML element < name [attributes] [/] > | getAttributes(), getName(), isSelfClosing() |
| TextTree | DocTree | Plain text | getBody() |
| ThrowsTree | BlockTagTree | @exception or @throws block tags | getDescription(), getExceptionname() |
| UnknownBlockTagTree | BlockTagTree | Unrecognized inline tags | getContent() |
| UnknownInlineTagTree | InlineTagTree | Unrecognized inline tags | getContent() |
| ValueTree | InlineTagTree | @value inline tags | getReference() |
| VersionTree | BlockTagTree | @version block tags | getBody() |