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What You Should Already Know: Note To /to From /from Heading /heading Body /body /note

XML was designed to describe data, not to display data. HTML was designed to display data, with focus on how data looks. XML is not a replacement for HTML.

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Pisarenco Grigore
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62 views

What You Should Already Know: Note To /to From /from Heading /heading Body /body /note

XML was designed to describe data, not to display data. HTML was designed to display data, with focus on how data looks. XML is not a replacement for HTML.

Uploaded by

Pisarenco Grigore
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 30

XML was designed to describe data.

HTML was designed to display data.



What You Should Already Know
Before you continue you should have a basic understanding of the following:
HTML
JavaScript
If you want to study these subjects first, find the tutorials on our Home page.

What is XML?
XML stands for EXtensible Markup Language
XML is a markup language much like HTML
XML was designed to describe data, not to display data
XML tags are not predefined. You must define your own tags
XML is designed to be self-descriptive
XML is a W3C Recommendation

The Difference Between XML and HTML
XML is not a replacement for HTML.
XML and HTML were designed with different goals:
XML was designed to describe data, with focus on what data is
HTML was designed to display data, with focus on how data looks
HTML is about displaying information, while XML is about carrying information.

XML Does Not DO Anything
Maybe it is a little hard to understand, but XML does not DO anything.
The following example is a note to Tove, from Jani, stored as XML:
<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>
The note above is quite self descriptive. It has sender and receiver information, it also
has a heading and a message body.
But still, this XML document does not DO anything. It is just information wrapped in
tags. Someone must write a piece of software to send, receive or display it.

With XML You Invent Your Own Tags
The tags in the example above (like <to> and <from>) are not defined in any XML
standard. These tags are "invented" by the author of the XML document.
That is because the XML language has no predefined tags.
The tags used in HTML are predefined. HTML documents can only use tags defined in
the HTML standard (like <p>, <h1>, etc.).
XML allows the author to define his/her own tags and his/her own document structure.

XML is Not a Replacement for HTML
XML is a complement to HTML.
It is important to understand that XML is not a replacement for HTML. In most web
applications, XML is used to describe data, while HTML is used to format and display the
data.
My best description of XML is this:
XML is a software- and hardware-independent tool for carrying information.

XML is a W3C Recommendation
XML became a W3C Recommendation on February 10, 1998.


How Can XML be Used?


XML is used in many aspects of web development, often to simplify data storage and
sharing.

XML Separates Data from HTML
If you need to display dynamic data in your HTML document, it will take a lot of work to
edit the HTML each time the data changes.
With XML, data can be stored in separate XML files. This way you can concentrate on
using HTML/CSS for display and layout, and be sure that changes in the underlying
data will not require any changes to the HTML.
With a few lines of JavaScript code, you can read an external XML file and update the
data content of your web page.

XML Simplifies Data Sharing
In the real world, computer systems and databases contain data in incompatible
formats.
XML data is stored in plain text format. This provides a software- and hardware-
independent way of storing data.
This makes it much easier to create data that can be shared by different applications.

XML Simplifies Data Transport
One of the most time-consuming challenges for developers is to exchange data
between incompatible systems over the Internet.
Exchanging data as XML greatly reduces this complexity, since the data can be read by
different incompatible applications.

XML Simplifies Platform Changes
Upgrading to new systems (hardware or software platforms), is always time consuming.
Large amounts of data must be converted and incompatible data is often lost.
XML data is stored in text format. This makes it easier to expand or upgrade to new
operating systems, new applications, or new browsers, without losing data.

XML Makes Your Data More Available
Different applications can access your data, not only in HTML pages, but also from XML
data sources.
With XML, your data can be available to all kinds of "reading machines" (Handheld
computers, voice machines, news feeds, etc.), and make it more available for blind
people, or people with other disabilities.

Internet Languages Written in XML
Several Internet languages are written in XML. Here are some examples:
XHTML
XML Schema
SVG
WSDL
RSS


XML Tree

XML documents form a tree structure that starts at "the root" and branches to "the
leaves".
An Example XML Document
XML documents use a self-describing and simple syntax:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>
The first line is the XML declaration. It defines the XML version (1.0).
The next line describes the root element of the document (like saying: "this document
is a note"):
<note>
The next 4 lines describe 4 child elements of the root (to, from, heading, and body):
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
And finally the last line defines the end of the root element:
</note>
You can assume, from this example, that the XML document contains a note to Tove
from Jani.
Don't you agree that XML is pretty self-descriptive?

XML Documents Form a Tree Structure
XML documents must contain a root element. This element is "the parent" of all other
elements.
The elements in an XML document form a document tree. The tree starts at the root
and branches to the lowest level of the tree.
All elements can have sub elements (child elements):
<root>
<child>
<subchild>.....</subchild>
</child>
</root>
The terms parent, child, and sibling are used to describe the relationships between
elements. Parent elements have children. Children on the same level are called siblings
(brothers or sisters).
All elements can have text content and attributes (just like in HTML).

Example:

The image above represents one book in the XML below:
<bookstore>
<book category="COOKING">
<title lang="en">Everyday Italian</title>
<author>Giada De Laurentiis</author>
<year>2005</year>
<price>30.00</price>
</book>
<book category="CHILDREN">
<title lang="en">Harry Potter</title>
<author>J K. Rowling</author>
<year>2005</year>
<price>29.99</price>
</book>
<book category="WEB">
<title lang="en">Learning XML</title>
<author>Erik T. Ray</author>
<year>2003</year>
<price>39.95</price>
</book>
</bookstore>
The root element in the example is <bookstore>. All <book> elements in the document
are contained within <bookstore>.
The <book> element has 4 children: <title>,< author>, <year>, <price>.


XML Syntax Rules

The syntax rules of XML are very simple and logical. The rules are easy to learn, and
easy to use.

All XML Elements Must Have a Closing Tag
In HTML, some elements do not have to have a closing tag:
<p>This is a paragraph.
<br>
In XML, it is illegal to omit the closing tag. All elements must have a closing tag:
<p>This is a paragraph.</p>
<br />
Note: You might have noticed from the previous example that the XML declaration did
not have a closing tag. This is not an error. The declaration is not a part of the XML
document itself, and it has no closing tag.

XML Tags are Case Sensitive
XML tags are case sensitive. The tag <Letter> is different from the tag <letter>.
Opening and closing tags must be written with the same case:
<Message>This is incorrect</message>
<message>This is correct</message>
Note: "Opening and closing tags" are often referred to as "Start and end tags". Use
whatever you prefer. It is exactly the same thing.

XML Elements Must be Properly Nested
In HTML, you might see improperly nested elements:
<b><i>This text is bold and italic</b></i>
In XML, all elements must be properly nested within each other:
<b><i>This text is bold and italic</i></b>
In the example above, "Properly nested" simply means that since the <i> element is
opened inside the <b> element, it must be closed inside the <b> element.

XML Documents Must Have a Root Element
XML documents must contain one element that is the parent of all other elements. This
element is called the rootelement.
<root>
<child>
<subchild>.....</subchild>
</child>
</root>


XML Attribute Values Must be Quoted
XML elements can have attributes in name/value pairs just like in HTML.
In XML, the attribute values must always be quoted.
Study the two XML documents below. The first one is incorrect, the second is correct:
<note date=12/11/2007>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
</note>

<note date="12/11/2007">
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
</note>
The error in the first document is that the date attribute in the note element is not
quoted.

Entity References
Some characters have a special meaning in XML.
If you place a character like "<" inside an XML element, it will generate an error
because the parser interprets it as the start of a new element.
This will generate an XML error:
<message>if salary < 1000 then</message>
To avoid this error, replace the "<" character with an entity reference:
<message>if salary &lt; 1000 then</message>
There are 5 predefined entity references in XML:
&lt; < less than
&gt; > greater than
&amp; & ampersand
&apos; ' apostrophe
&quot; " quotation mark
Note: Only the characters "<" and "&" are strictly illegal in XML. The greater than
character is legal, but it is a good habit to replace it.

Comments in XML
The syntax for writing comments in XML is similar to that of HTML.
<!-- This is a comment -->

White-space is Preserved in XML
HTML truncates multiple white-space characters to one single white-space:
HTML: Hello Tove
Output: Hello Tove
With XML, the white-space in a document is not truncated.

XML Stores New Line as LF
Windows applications store a new line as: carriage return and line feed (CR+LF).
Unix and Mac OSX uses LF.
Old Mac systems uses CR.
XML stores a new line as LF.

Well Formed XML
XML documents that conform to the syntax rules above are said to be "Well Formed"
XML documents.


XML Elements

An XML document contains XML Elements.

What is an XML Element?
An XML element is everything from (including) the element's start tag to (including) the
element's end tag.
An element can contain:
other elements
text
attributes
or a mix of all of the above...
<bookstore>
<book category="CHILDREN">
<title>Harry Potter</title>
<author>J K. Rowling</author>
<year>2005</year>
<price>29.99</price>
</book>
<book category="WEB">
<title>Learning XML</title>
<author>Erik T. Ray</author>
<year>2003</year>
<price>39.95</price>
</book>
</bookstore>
In the example above, <bookstore> and <book> have element contents, because
they contain other elements. <book> also has an attribute (category="CHILDREN").
<title>, <author>, <year>, and <price> have text contentbecause they contain text.

Empty XML Elements
An alternative syntax can be used for XML elements with no content:
Instead of writing a book element (with no content) like this:
<book></book>
It can be written like this:
<book />
This sort of element syntax is called self-closing.

XML Naming Rules
XML elements must follow these naming rules:
Names can contain letters, numbers, and other characters
Names cannot start with a number or punctuation character
Names cannot start with the letters xml (or XML, or Xml, etc)
Names cannot contain spaces
Any name can be used, no words are reserved.

Best Naming Practices
Make names descriptive: <first_name>, <last_name>.
Make names short and simple, like this: <book_title> not like this:
<the_title_of_the_book>.
Avoid "-". If you name something "first-name", some software may think you want to
subtract name from first.
Avoid ".". If you name something "first.name", some software may think that "name" is
a property of the object "first."
Avoid ":". Colons are reserved to be used for something called namespaces (more
later).
Non-English letters like are perfectly legal in XML, but watch out for problems if
your software doesn't support them.

Naming Styles
There are no naming styles defined for XML elements. But here are some commonly
used:
Style Example Description
Lower case <firstname> All letters lower case
Upper case <FIRSTNAME> All letters upper case
Underscore <first_name> Underscore separates words
Pascal case <FirstName> Uppercase first letter in each word
Camel case <firstName> Uppercase first letter in each word except the first
If you choose a naming style, it is good to be consistent!
XML documents often have a corresponding database. A good practice is to use the
naming rules of your database for the elements in the XML documents.

XML Elements are Extensible
XML elements can be extended to carry more information.
Look at the following XML example:
<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>
Let's imagine that we created an application that extracted the <to>, <from>, and
<body> elements from the XML document to produce this output:
MESSAGE
To: Tove
From: Jani
Don't forget me this weekend!
Imagine that the author of the XML document added some extra information to it:
<note>
<date>2008-01-10</date>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>
Should the application break or crash?
No. The application should still be able to find the <to>, <from>, and <body>
elements in the XML document and produce the same output.
One of the beauties of XML, is that it can be extended without breaking applications.


XML Attributes

XML elements can have attributes, just like HTML.
Attributes provide additional information about an element.

XML Attributes
In HTML, attributes provide additional information about elements:
<img src="computer.gif">
<a href="demo.asp">
Attributes often provide information that is not a part of the data. In the example
below, the file type is irrelevant to the data, but can be important to the software that
wants to manipulate the element:
<file type="gif">computer.gif</file>


XML Attributes Must be Quoted
Attribute values must always be quoted. Either single or double quotes can be used. For
a person's sex, the person element can be written like this:
<person sex="female">
or like this:
<person sex='female'>
If the attribute value itself contains double quotes you can use single quotes, like in this
example:
<gangster name='George "Shotgun" Ziegler'>
or you can use character entities:
<gangster name="George &quot;Shotgun&quot; Ziegler">


XML Elements vs. Attributes
Take a look at these examples:
<person sex="female">
<firstname>Anna</firstname>
<lastname>Smith</lastname>
</person>

<person>
<sex>female</sex>
<firstname>Anna</firstname>
<lastname>Smith</lastname>
</person>
In the first example sex is an attribute. In the last, sex is an element. Both examples
provide the same information.
There are no rules about when to use attributes or when to use elements. Attributes
are handy in HTML. In XML my advice is to avoid them. Use elements instead.

My Favorite Way
The following three XML documents contain exactly the same information:
A date attribute is used in the first example:
<note date="10/01/2008">
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>
A date element is used in the second example:
<note>
<date>10/01/2008</date>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>
An expanded date element is used in the third: (THIS IS MY FAVORITE):
<note>
<date>
<day>10</day>
<month>01</month>
<year>2008</year>
</date>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>


Avoid XML Attributes?
Some of the problems with using attributes are:
attributes cannot contain multiple values (elements can)
attributes cannot contain tree structures (elements can)
attributes are not easily expandable (for future changes)
Attributes are difficult to read and maintain. Use elements for data. Use attributes for
information that is not relevant to the data.
Don't end up like this:
<note day="10" month="01" year="2008"
to="Tove" from="Jani" heading="Reminder"
body="Don't forget me this weekend!">
</note>


XML Attributes for Metadata
Sometimes ID references are assigned to elements. These IDs can be used to identify
XML elements in much the same way as the id attribute in HTML. This example
demonstrates this:
<messages>
<note id="501">
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>
<note id="502">
<to>Jani</to>
<from>Tove</from>
<heading>Re: Reminder</heading>
<body>I will not</body>
</note>
</messages>
The id attributes above are for identifying the different notes. It is not a part of the
note itself.
What I'm trying to say here is that metadata (data about data) should be stored as
attributes, and the data itself should be stored as elements.


XML Namespaces


XML Namespaces provide a method to avoid element name conflicts.

Name Conflicts
In XML, element names are defined by the developer. This often results in a conflict
when trying to mix XML documents from different XML applications.
This XML carries HTML table information:
<table>
<tr>
<td>Apples</td>
<td>Bananas</td>
</tr>
</table>
This XML carries information about a table (a piece of furniture):
<table>
<name>African Coffee Table</name>
<width>80</width>
<length>120</length>
</table>
If these XML fragments were added together, there would be a name conflict. Both
contain a <table> element, but the elements have different content and meaning.
A user or an XML application will not know how to handle these differences.

Solving the Name Conflict Using a Prefix
Name conflicts in XML can easily be avoided using a name prefix.
This XML carries information about an HTML table, and a piece of furniture:
<h:table>
<h:tr>
<h:td>Apples</h:td>
<h:td>Bananas</h:td>
</h:tr>
</h:table>

<f:table>
<f:name>African Coffee Table</f:name>
<f:width>80</f:width>
<f:length>120</f:length>
</f:table>
In the example above, there will be no conflict because the two <table> elements have
different names.

XML Namespaces - The xmlns Attribute
When using prefixes in XML, a so-called namespace for the prefix must be defined.
The namespace is defined by the xmlns attribute in the start tag of an element.
The namespace declaration has the following syntax. xmlns:prefix="URI".
<root>

<h:table xmlns:h="http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/">
<h:tr>
<h:td>Apples</h:td>
<h:td>Bananas</h:td>
</h:tr>
</h:table>

<f:table xmlns:f="http://www.w3schools.com/furniture">
<f:name>African Coffee Table</f:name>
<f:width>80</f:width>
<f:length>120</f:length>
</f:table>

</root>
In the example above, the xmlns attribute in the <table> tag give the h: and f:
prefixes a qualified namespace.
When a namespace is defined for an element, all child elements with the same prefix
are associated with the same namespace.
Namespaces can be declared in the elements where they are used or in the XML root
element:
<root xmlns:h="http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/"
xmlns:f="http://www.w3schools.com/furniture">

<h:table>
<h:tr>
<h:td>Apples</h:td>
<h:td>Bananas</h:td>
</h:tr>
</h:table>

<f:table>
<f:name>African Coffee Table</f:name>
<f:width>80</f:width>
<f:length>120</f:length>
</f:table>

</root>
Note: The namespace URI is not used by the parser to look up information.
The purpose is to give the namespace a unique name. However, often companies use
the namespace as a pointer to a web page containing namespace information.
Try to go to http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/.

Uniform Resource Identifier (URI)
A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) is a string of characters which identifies an
Internet Resource.
The most common URI is the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) which identifies an
Internet domain address. Another, not so common type of URI is the Universal
Resource Name (URN).
In our examples we will only use URLs.

Default Namespaces
Defining a default namespace for an element saves us from using prefixes in all the
child elements. It has the following syntax:
xmlns="namespaceURI"
This XML carries HTML table information:
<table xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/">
<tr>
<td>Apples</td>
<td>Bananas</td>
</tr>
</table>
This XML carries information about a piece of furniture:
<table xmlns="http://www.w3schools.com/furniture">
<name>African Coffee Table</name>
<width>80</width>
<length>120</length>
</table>


Namespaces in Real Use
XSLT is an XML language that can be used to transform XML documents into other
formats, like HTML.
In the XSLT document below, you can see that most of the tags are HTML tags.
The tags that are not HTML tags have the prefix xsl, identified by the namespace
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform":
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

<xsl:template match="/">
<html>
<body>
<h2>My CD Collection</h2>
<table border="1">
<tr>
<th style="text-align:left">Title</th>
<th style="text-align:left">Artist</th>
</tr>
<xsl:for-each select="catalog/cd">
<tr>
<td><xsl:value-of select="title"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="artist"/></td>
</tr>
</xsl:for-each>
</table>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>



XML Encoding

XML documents can contain international characters, like Norwegian , or French
.
To avoid errors, you should specify the encoding used, or save your XML files as UTF-8.

Character Encoding
Character encoding defines a unique binary code for each different character used in a
document.
In computer terms, character encoding are also called character set, character map,
code set, and code page.

Unicode
Unicode is an industry standard for character encoding of text documents. It denes
(nearly) every possible international character by a name and a number.
Unicode has two variants: UTF-8 and UTF-16.
UTF = Universal character set Transformation Format.
UTF-8 uses 1 byte (8-bits) to represent characters in the ASCII set, and two or three
bytes for the rest.
UTF-16 uses 2 bytes (16 bits) for most characters, and four bytes for the rest.

UTF-8 - The Web Standard
UTF-8 is the standard character encoding on the web.
UTF-8 is the default character encoding for HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, SQL, and
XML.

XML Encoding
The rst line in an XML document is called the prolog:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
The prolog is optional. Normally it contains the XML version number.
It can also contain information about the encoding used in the document. This prolog
specifies UTF-8 encoding:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
The XML standard states that all XML software must understand both UTF-8 and UTF-
16.
UTF-8 is the default for documents without encoding information.
In addition, most XML software systems understand encodings like ISO-8859-1,
Windows-1252, and ASCII.

XML Errors
Most often, XML documents are created on one computer, uploaded to a server on a
second computer, and displayed by a browser on a third computer.
If the encoding is not correctly interpreted by all the three computers, the browser
might display meaningless text, or you might get an error message.
Look at these two XML files: Note saved with right encoding and Note saved with wrong
encoding.
For high quality XML documents, UTF-8 encoding is the best to use. UTF-8 covers
international characters, and it is also the default, if no encoding is declared.

Conclusion
When you write an XML document:
Use an XML editor that supports encoding
Make sure you know what encoding the editor uses
Describe the encoding in the encoding attribute
UTF-8 is the safest encoding to use
UTF-8 is the web standard



Viewing XML Files


Raw XML files can be viewed in all major browsers.
Don't expect XML files to be displayed as HTML pages.

Viewing XML Files
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
- <note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>
Look at this XML file: note.xml
The XML document will be displayed with color-coded root and child elements. A plus
(+) or minus sign (-) to the left of the elements can be clicked to expand or collapse
the element structure. To view the raw XML source (without the + and - signs), select
"View Page Source" or "View Source" from the browser menu.
Note: In Safari, only the element text will be displayed. To view the raw XML, you must
right click the page and select "View Source"

Viewing an Invalid XML File
If an erroneous XML file is opened, some browsers might report the error, some may
display it incorrectly.
Try to open this XML file in Chrome, IE, Firefox, Opera, and Safari : note_error.xml

Other XML Examples
Viewing some XML documents will help you get the XML feeling.
An XML CD catalog
This is a CD collection, stored as XML data.
An XML plant catalog
This is a plant catalog from a plant shop, stored as XML data.
A Simple Food Menu
This is a breakfast food menu from a restaurant, stored as XML data.

Why Does XML Display Like This?
XML documents do not carry information about how to display the data.
Since XML tags are "invented" by the author of the XML document, browsers do not
know if a tag like <table> describes an HTML table or a dining table.
Without any information about how to display the data, most browsers will just display
the XML document as it is.
In the next chapters, we will look at different solutions for the display problem, using
CSS, XSLT, and JavaScript.



Displaying XML with CSS


With CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) you can add display information to an XML
document.

Displaying your XML Files with CSS?
It is possible to use CSS to format an XML document.
Below is an example of how to use a CSS style sheet to format an XML document:
Take a look at this XML file: The CD catalog
Then look at this style sheet: The CSS file
Finally, view: The CD catalog formatted with the CSS file
Below is a fraction of the XML file. The second line links the XML file to the CSS file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/css" href="cd_catalog.css"?>
<CATALOG>
<CD>
<TITLE>Empire Burlesque</TITLE>
<ARTIST>Bob Dylan</ARTIST>
<COUNTRY>USA</COUNTRY>
<COMPANY>Columbia</COMPANY>
<PRICE>10.90</PRICE>
<YEAR>1985</YEAR>
</CD>
<CD>
<TITLE>Hide your heart</TITLE>
<ARTIST>Bonnie Tyler</ARTIST>
<COUNTRY>UK</COUNTRY>
<COMPANY>CBS Records</COMPANY>
<PRICE>9.90</PRICE>
<YEAR>1988</YEAR>
</CD>
.
.
.
</CATALOG>
Formatting XML with CSS is not the most common method.
W3C recommends using XSLT instead.
XML Document Types

An XML document with correct syntax is called "Well Formed".
A "Valid" XML document must also conform to a specified document type.

Well Formed XML Documents
An XML document with correct syntax is "Well Formed".
The syntax rules were described in the previous chapters:
XML documents must have a root element
XML elements must have a closing tag
XML tags are case sensitive
XML elements must be properly nested
XML attribute values must be quoted
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>


An XML Validator
To help you check the syntax of your XML files, we have created an XML validator to
syntax-check your XML.
Please see the next chapter.

Valid XML Documents
A valid XML document is not the same as a well formed XML document.
The first rule, for a valid XML document, is that it must be well formed (see previous
paragraph).
The second rule is that a valid XML document must conform to a document type.
Rules that defines legal elements and attributes for XML documents are often called
document definitions, or document schemas.

When to Use a Document Definition?
A document definition is the easiest way to provide a reference to the legal elements
and attributes of a document.
A document definition also provides a common reference that many users (developers)
can share.
A document definition provides a standardization that makes life easier.

When NOT to Use a Document Definition?
XML does not require a document definition.
When you are experimenting with XML, or when you are working with small XML files,
creating document definitions may be a waste of time.
If you develop applications, wait until the specification is stable, before you add a
document definition. Otherwise your software might stop working, because of
validation errors,

Document Definitions
There are different types of document definitions that can be used with XML:
The original Document Type Definition (DTD)
The newer, and XML based, XML Schema


XML Validator
Previous
Next Chapter

Use our XML validator to syntax-check your XML.

XML Errors Will Stop You
Errors in XML documents will stop your XML applications.
The W3C XML specification states that a program should stop processing an XML
document if it finds an error. The reason is that XML software should be small, fast, and
compatible.
HTML browsers will display HTML documents with errors (like missing end tags).
With XML, errors are not allowed.

Syntax-Check Your XML
To help you syntax-check your XML, we have created an XML validator.
Paste your XML into the text area below, and syntax-check it by clicking the "Validate"
button.


Syntax-Check an XML File
You can syntax-check an XML file by typing the URL of the file into the input field
below, and then click the "Validate" button:
Filename:
http://www

Validate


If you get "Access Denied" or "Network Error", it is because your browser does not allow file access across
domains.
The file "note_error.xml" demonstrates your browsers error handling. If you want to
see an error-free message, substitute the "note_error.xml" with "cd_catalog.xml".


XML DTD

An XML document with correct syntax is called "Well Formed".
An XML document validated against a DTD is "Well Formed" and "Valid".

Valid XML Documents
A "Valid" XML document is a "Well Formed" XML document, which also conforms to the
rules of a DTD:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE note SYSTEM "Note.dtd">
<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>
The DOCTYPE declaration, in the example above, is a reference to an external DTD file.
The content of the file is shown in the paragraph below.

XML DTD
The purpose of a DTD is to define the structure of an XML document. It defines the
structure with a list of legal elements:
<!DOCTYPE note
[
<!ELEMENT note (to,from,heading,body)>
<!ELEMENT to (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT from (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT heading (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT body (#PCDATA)>
]>
The DTD above is interpreted like this:
!DOCTYPE note defines that the root element of the document is note
!ELEMENT note defines that the note element contains four elements: "to, from,
heading, body"
!ELEMENT to defines the to element to be of type "#PCDATA"
!ELEMENT from defines the from element to be of type "#PCDATA"
!ELEMENT heading defines the heading element to be of type "#PCDATA"
!ELEMENT body defines the body element to be of type "#PCDATA"

#PCDATA means parse-able text data.


Using DTD for Entity Declaration
A doctype declaration can also be used to define special characters and character
strings, used in the document:
Example
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE note [
<!ENTITY nbsp "&#xA0;">
<!ENTITY writer "Writer: Donald Duck.">
<!ENTITY copyright "Copyright: W3Schools.">
]>

<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
<footer>&writer;&nbsp;&copyright;</footer>
</note>

Try it yourself


An entity has three parts: an ampersand (&), an entity name, and a semicolon (;).

Why Use a DTD?
With a DTD, your XML files can carry a description of its own format.
With a DTD, independent groups of people can agree on a standard for interchanging
data.
With a DTD, you can verify that the data you receive from the outside world is valid.


XML Schema
Previous
Next Chapter

An XML Schema describes the structure of an XML document, just like a DTD.
An XML document with correct syntax is called "Well Formed".
An XML document validated against an XML Schema is both "Well Formed" and "Valid".

XML Schema
XML Schema is an XML-based alternative to DTD:
<xs:element name="note">

<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="to" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="from" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="heading" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="body" type="xs:string"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>

</xs:element>
The Schema above is interpreted like this:
<xs:element name="note"> defines the element called "note"
<xs:complexType> the "note" element is a complex type
<xs:sequence> the complex type is a sequence of elements
<xs:element name="to" type="xs:string"> the element "to" is of type string
(text)
<xs:element name="from" type="xs:string"> the element "from" is of type
string
<xs:element name="heading" type="xs:string"> the element "heading" is of
type string
<xs:element name="body" type="xs:string"> the element "body" is of type
string
Everything is wrapped in "Well Formed" XML.

XML Schemas are More Powerful than DTD
XML Schemas are written in XML
XML Schemas are extensible to additions
XML Schemas support data types
XML Schemas support namespaces

Why Use an XML Schema?
With XML Schema, your XML files can carry a description of its own format.
With XML Schema, independent groups of people can agree on a standard for
interchanging data.
With XML Schema, you can verify data.

XML Schemas Support Data Types
One of the greatest strength of XML Schemas is the support for data types:
It is easier to describe document content
It is easier to define restrictions on data
It is easier to validate the correctness of data
It is easier to convert data between different data types

XML Schemas use XML Syntax
Another great strength about XML Schemas is that they are written in XML:
You don't have to learn a new language
You can use your XML editor to edit your Schema files
You can use your XML parser to parse your Schema files
You can manipulate your Schemas with the XML DOM
You can transform your Schemas with XSLT

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