public static Properties extractMapping(String settingsFile){
  try {
    Document doc=XMLUtils.getXMLDocument(settingsFile);
    Properties mapping=extractMapping(XMLUtils.getMainNode(doc));
    return mapping;
  }
 catch (  RuntimeException e) {
    log.warning("error extracting the settings: " + e);
    return new Properties();
  }
}

public static Properties extractMapping ( String settingsFile ) { try { Document doc = XMLUtils . getXMLDocument ( settingsFile ) ; Properties mapping = extractMapping ( XMLUtils . getMainNode ( doc ) ) ; return mapping ; } catch ( RuntimeException e ) { log . warning ( "error extracting the settings: " + e ) ; return new Properties ( ) ; } }
extract the settings from the xml file .
