def parse(string)
      if string.blank?
        {}
      else
        @dbf = DocumentBuilderFactory.new_instance
        xml_string_reader = StringReader.new(string)
        xml_input_source = InputSource.new(xml_string_reader)
        doc = @dbf.new_document_builder.parse(xml_input_source)
        merge_element!({}, doc.document_element)
      end
    end
def parse(string)
      if string.blank?
        {}
      else
        @dbf = DocumentBuilderFactory.new_instance
        xml_string_reader = StringReader.new(string)
        xml_input_source = InputSource.new(xml_string_reader)
        doc = @dbf.new_document_builder.parse(xml_input_source)
        merge_element!({}, doc.document_element)
      end
    end
Parse an XML Document string into a simple hash using Java's jdom.
 string::
   XML Document string to parse