Converting DOM XML to String

[esor50]

I am making my first try at creating XML and passing it to a
SOAPServer. I am using java, importing the following import
declarations:

import java.sql.*;
import javax.xml.parsers.*;
import javax.xml.rpc.*;
import org.w3c.dom.*;

I create and populate the XML in a document. Then I find that, in
order to put my XML into a String, I need to serialize the document to
a file. I then read the string from the file. This approach is
working but it seems crazy to me; is there a way to convert the XML in
the document to a String without putting it into a file?
Thanks