XML - Overview

XML stands for Extensible Markup Language. It is a text-based markup language

derived from Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML).

XML tags identify the data and are used to store and organize the data, rather
than specifying how to display it like HTML tags, which are used to display the
data. XML is not going to replace HTML in the near future, but it introduces new
possibilities by adopting many successful features of HTML.

There are three important characteristics of XML that make it useful in a variety of
systems and solutions −

 XML is extensible − XML allows you to create your own self-descriptive tags,
or language, that suits your application.
 XML carries the data, does not present it − XML allows you to store the data
irrespective of how it will be presented.
 XML is a public standard − XML was developed by an organization called the
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and is available as an open standard.

XML Usage

A short list of XML usage says it all −

 XML can work behind the scene to simplify the creation of HTML documents
for large web sites.
 XML can be used to exchange the information between organizations and
systems.
 XML can be used for offloading and reloading of databases.
 XML can be used to store and arrange the data, which can customize your
data handling needs.
 XML can easily be merged with style sheets to create almost any desired
output.
 Virtually, any type of data can be expressed as an XML document.

What is Markup?

XML is a markup language that defines set of rules for encoding documents in a
format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. So what exactly is a
markup language? Markup is information added to a document that enhances its
meaning in certain ways, in that it identifies the parts and how they relate to each
other. More specifically, a markup language is a set of symbols that can be placed
in the text of a document to demarcate and label the parts of that document.

Following example shows how XML markup looks, when embedded in a piece of
text −

<message>
<text>Hello, world!</text>
</message>

1
This snippet includes the markup symbols, or the tags such as
<message>...</message> and <text>... </text>. The tags <message> and
</message> mark the start and the end of the XML code fragment. The tags
<text> and </text> surround the text Hello, world!.

Is XML a Programming Language?

A programming language consists of grammar rules and its own vocabulary which
is used to create computer programs. These programs instruct the computer to
perform specific tasks. XML does not qualify to be a programming language as it
does not perform any computation or algorithms. It is usually stored in a simple
text file and is processed by special software that is capable of interpreting XML.

XML - Syntax

In this chapter, we will discuss the simple syntax rules to write an XML document.
Following is a complete XML document −

<?xml version = "1.0"?>

<contact-info>
<name>Tanmay Patil</name>
<company>TutorialsPoint</company>
<phone>(011) 123-4567</phone>
</contact-info>

You can notice there are two kinds of information in the above example −

 Markup, like <contact-info>

 The text, or the character data, Tutorials Point and (040) 123-4567.

The following diagram depicts the syntax rules to write different types of markup
and text in an XML document.

Let us see each component of the above diagram in detail.

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XML Declaration
The XML document can optionally have an XML declaration. It is written as follows
−

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>

Where version is the XML version and encoding specifies the character encoding
used in the document.

Syntax Rules for XML Declaration

 The XML declaration is case sensitive and must begin with "<?xml>" where
"xml" is written in lower-case.
 If document contains XML declaration, then it strictly needs to be the first
statement of the XML document.
 The XML declaration strictly needs be the first statement in the XML document.
 An HTTP protocol can override the value of encoding that you put in the XML
declaration.

Tags and Elements

An XML file is structured by several XML-elements, also called XML-nodes or XML-
tags. The names of XML-elements are enclosed in triangular brackets < > as
shown below −

<element>

Syntax Rules for Tags and Elements

Element Syntax − Each XML-element needs to be closed either with start or with
end elements as shown below −

<element>....</element>

or in simple-cases, just this way −

<element/>

Nesting of Elements − An XML-element can contain multiple XML-elements as its

children, but the children elements must not overlap. i.e., an end tag of an
element must have the same name as that of the most recent unmatched start
tag.

The Following example shows incorrect nested tags −

<?xml version = "1.0"?>

<contact-info>
<company>TutorialsPoint
</contact-info>
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</company>

The Following example shows correct nested tags −

<?xml version = "1.0"?>

<contact-info>
<company>TutorialsPoint</company>
<contact-info>

Root Element − An XML document can have only one root element. For example,
following is not a correct XML document, because both the x and y elements occur
at the top level without a root element −

<x>...</x>
<y>...</y>

The Following example shows a correctly formed XML document −

<root>
<x>...</x>
<y>...</y>
</root>

Case Sensitivity − The names of XML-elements are case-sensitive. That means the
name of the start and the end elements need to be exactly in the same case.

For example, <contact-info> is different from <Contact-Info>

XML Attributes
An attribute specifies a single property for the element, using a name/value pair.
An XML-element can have one or more attributes. For example −

<a href = "http://www.tutorialspoint.com/">Tutorialspoint!</a>

Here href is the attribute name and http://www.tutorialspoint.com/ is attribute value.

Syntax Rules for XML Attributes

 Attribute names in XML (unlike HTML) are case sensitive. That
is, HREF and href are considered two different XML attributes.
 Same attribute cannot have two values in a syntax. The following example
shows incorrect syntax because the attribute b is specified twice −
<a b = "x" c = "y" b = "z">....</a>
 Attribute names are defined without quotation marks, whereas attribute values
must always appear in quotation marks. Following example demonstrates
incorrect xml syntax
−

<a b = x>....</a>

4
In the above syntax, the attribute value is not defined in quotation marks.

XML References
References usually allow you to add or include additional text or markup in an
XML document. References always begin with the symbol "&" which is a reserved
character and end with the symbol ";". XML has two types of references −

 Entity References − An entity reference contains a name between the start and
the end delimiters. For example &amp; where amp is name. The name refers to
a predefined string of text and/or markup.
 Character References − These contain references, such as &#65;, contains a hash
mark (“#”) followed by a number. The number always refers to the Unicode
code of a character. In this case, 65 refers to alphabet "A".
XML Text
The names of XML-elements and XML-attributes are case-sensitive, which means
the name of start and end elements need to be written in the same case. To avoid
character encoding problems, all XML files should be saved as Unicode UTF-8 or
UTF-16 files.

Whitespace characters like blanks, tabs and line-breaks between XML-elements

and between the XML-attributes will be ignored.

Some characters are reserved by the XML syntax itself. Hence, they cannot be
used directly. To use them, some replacement-entities are used, which are listed
below −

Not Allowed Character Replacement Entity Character Description

< &lt; less than

> &gt; greater than

& &amp; ampersand

' &apos; apostrophe

" &quot; quotation mark

XML - Documents

An XML document is a basic unit of XML information composed of elements and

other markup in an orderly package. An XML document can contains wide variety
of data. For example, database of numbers, numbers representing molecular
structure or a mathematical equation.

XML Document Example

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A simple document is shown in the following example −

<?xml version = "1.0"?>

<contact-info>
<name>Tanmay Patil</name>
<company>TutorialsPoint</company>
<phone>(011) 123-4567</phone>
</contact-info>

The following image depicts the parts of XML document.

Document Prolog Section

Document Prolog comes at the top of the document, before the root element. This
section contains −

 XML declaration
 Document type declaration

You can learn more about XML declaration in this chapter − XML Declaration

Document Elements Section

Document Elements are the building blocks of XML. These divide the document into
a hierarchy of sections, each serving a specific purpose. You can separate a
document into multiple sections so that they can be rendered differently, or used
by a search engine. The elements can be containers, with a combination of text
and other elements.

You can learn more about XML elements in this chapter − XML Elements

XML - Declaration

This chapter covers XML declaration in detail. XML declaration contains details
that prepare an XML processor to parse the XML document. It is optional, but
when used, it must appear in the first line of the XML document.

Syntax

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Following syntax shows XML declaration −

<?xml
version = "version_number"
encoding = "encoding_declaration"
standalone = "standalone_status"
?>

Each parameter consists of a parameter name, an equals sign (=), and parameter
value inside a quote. Following table shows the above syntax in detail −

Parameter Parameter_value Parameter_description

Version 1.0 Specifies the version of the XML standard used.

UTF-8, UTF-16, ISO-10646-

UCS-2, ISO-10646-UCS-4, ISO- It defines the character encoding used in the document. UTF-
Encoding
8859-1 to ISO-8859-9, ISO- is the default encoding used.
2022-JP, Shift_JIS, EUC-JP

It informs the parser whether the document relies on

the information from an external source, such as
external document type definition (DTD), for its
Standalone yes or no
content. The default value is set to no. Setting it
to yes tells the processor there are no external
declarations required for parsing the document.

Rules
An XML declaration should abide with the following rules −

 If the XML declaration is present in the XML, it must be placed as the first
line in the XML document.
 If the XML declaration is included, it must contain version number attribute.
 The Parameter names and values are case-sensitive.
 The names are always in lower case.
 The order of placing the parameters is important. The correct order
is: version, encoding and standalone.
 Either single or double quotes may be used.
 The XML declaration has no closing tag i.e. </?xml>

XML Declaration Examples

Following are few examples of XML declarations −

XML declaration with no parameters − <?xml >

XML declaration with version definition − <?xml version = "1.0">

XML declaration with all parameters defined − <?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"
standalone = "no" ?>

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XML declaration with all parameters defined in single quotes −

<?xml version = '1.0' encoding = 'iso-8859-1' standalone = 'no' ?>

XML - Tags

Let us learn about one of the most important part of XML, the XML tags. XML
tags form the foundation of XML. They define the scope of an element in XML.
They can also be used to insert comments, declare settings required for parsing
the environment, and to insert special instructions.

We can broadly categorize XML tags as follows −

Start Tag
The beginning of every non-empty XML element is marked by a start-tag.
Following is an example of start-tag − <address>

End Tag
Every element that has a start tag should end with an end-tag. Following is an
example of end-tag − </address>

Note, that the end tags include a solidus ("/") before the name of an element.

Empty Tag
The text that appears between start-tag and end-tag is called content. An element
which has no content is termed as empty. An empty element can be represented
in two ways as follows −

A start-tag immediately followed by an end-tag as shown below −

<hr></hr>

A complete empty-element tag is as shown below −

<hr />

Empty-element tags may be used for any element which has no content.

XML Tags Rules

Following are the rules that need to be followed to use XML tags −

Rule 1 XML tags are case-sensitive. Following line of code is an example of wrong
syntax </Address>, because of the case difference in two tags, which is treated as
erroneous syntax in XML.
<address>This is wrong syntax</Address>

8
Following code shows a correct way, where we use the same case to name the
start and the end tag.

<address>This is correct syntax</address>

Rule 2 XML tags must be closed in an appropriate order, i.e., an XML tag opened inside
another element must be closed before the outer element is closed. For example −
<outer_element>
<internal_element>
This tag is closed before the outer_element
</internal_element>
</outer_element>

XML - Elements

XML elements can be defined as building blocks of an XML. Elements can behave
as containers to hold text, elements, attributes, media objects or all of these.

Each XML document contains one or more elements, the scope of which are either
delimited by start and end tags, or for empty elements, by an empty-element tag.

Syntax Following is the syntax to write an XML element −

<element-name attribute1 attribute2>

....content
</element-name>

where,

 element-name is the name of the element. The name its case in the start and
end tags must match.
 attribute1, attribute2 are attributes of the element separated by white spaces.
An attribute defines a property of the element. It associates a name with a
value, which is a string of characters. An attribute is written as − name = "value"

name is followed by an = sign and a string value inside double(" ") or single(' ')
quotes.

Empty Element : An empty element (element with no content) has following

syntax −

<name attribute1 attribute2.../>

Following is an example of an XML document using various XML element −

<?xml version = "1.0"?>

<contact-info>
<address category = "residence">
<name>Tanmay Patil</name>
9
 <company>TutorialsPoint</company>
<phone>(011) 123-4567</phone>
</address>
</contact-info>

XML Elements Rules

Following rules are required to be followed for XML elements −

 An element name can contain any alphanumeric characters. The only

punctuation mark allowed in names are the hyphen (-), under-score (_) and
period (.).
 Names are case sensitive. For example, Address, address, and ADDRESS are
different names.
 Start and end tags of an element must be identical.
 An element, which is a container, can contain text or elements as seen in the
above example.

XML - Attributes

This chapter describes the XML attributes. Attributes are part of XML elements.
An element can have multiple unique attributes. Attribute gives more information
about XML elements. To be more precise, they define properties of elements. An
XML attribute is always a name-value pair.

Syntax
An XML attribute has the following syntax −

<element-name attribute1 attribute2 >

....content..
< /element-name>

where attribute1 and attribute2 has the following form −

name = "value"

value has to be in double (" ") or single (' ') quotes.

Here, attribute1 and attribute2 are unique attribute labels.

Attributes are used to add a unique label to an element, place the label in a
category, add a Boolean flag, or otherwise associate it with some string of data.
Following example demonstrates the use of attributes −

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE garden [
<!ELEMENT garden (plants)*>
<!ELEMENT plants (#PCDATA)>
<!ATTLIST plants category CDATA #REQUIRED>
]>
10
<garden>
<plants category = "flowers" />
<plants category = "shrubs">
</plants>
</garden>

Attributes are used to distinguish among elements of the same name, when you
do not want to create a new element for every situation. Hence, the use of an
attribute can add a little more detail in differentiating two or more similar
elements.

In the above example, we have categorized the plants by including attribute

category and assigning different values to each of the elements. Hence, we have
two categories of plants, one flowers and other shrubs. Thus, we have two plant
elements with different attributes.

You can also observe that we have declared this attribute at the beginning of XML.

Attribute Types
Following table lists the type of attributes −

Attribute Type Description

It takes any literal string as a value. CDATA is a StringType. CDATA is

StringType character data. This means, any string of non-markup characters is a legal
part of the attribute.

This is a more constrained type. The validity constraints noted in the

grammar are applied after the attribute value is normalized. The
TokenizedType attributes are given as −
 ID − It is used to specify the element as unique.
 IDREF − It is used to reference an ID that has been named for another
element.
 IDREFS − It is used to reference all IDs of an element.
TokenizedType  ENTITY − It indicates that the attribute will represent an external entity
in the document.
 ENTITIES − It indicates that the attribute will represent external
entities in the document.
 NMTOKEN − It is similar to CDATA with restrictions on what data
can be part of the attribute.
 NMTOKENS − It is similar to CDATA with restrictions on what data
can be part of the attribute.

This has a list of predefined values in its declaration. out of which, it must
assign one value. There are two types of enumerated attribute −
 NotationType − It declares that an element will be referenced to a
EnumeratedType
NOTATION declared somewhere else in the XML document.
 Enumeration − Enumeration allows you to define a specific list of
values that the attribute value must match.

Element Attribute Rules

11
Following are the rules that need to be followed for attributes −

 An attribute name must not appear more than once in the same start-tag or
empty-element tag.
 An attribute must be declared in the Document Type Definition (DTD) using
an Attribute-List Declaration.
 Attribute values must not contain direct or indirect entity references to
external entities.
 The replacement text of any entity referred to directly or indirectly in an
attribute value must not contain a less than sign (<)

XML - Comments

This chapter explains how comments work in XML documents. XML comments are
similar to HTML comments. The comments are added as notes or lines for
understanding the purpose of an XML code.

Comments can be used to include related links, information, and terms. They are
visible only in the source code; not in the XML code. Comments may appear
anywhere in XML code.

Syntax
XML comment has the following syntax −

<!--Your comment-->

A comment starts with <!-- and ends with -->. You can add textual notes as
comments between the characters. You must not nest one comment inside the
other.

Example

Following example demonstrates the use of comments in XML document −

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8" ?>

<!--Students grades are uploaded by months-->
<class_list>
<student>
<name>Tanmay</name>
<grade>A</grade>
</student>
</class_list>

Any text between <!-- and --> characters is considered as a comment.

XML Comments Rules

Following rules should be followed for XML comments −

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  Comments cannot appear before XML declaration.
 Comments may appear anywhere in a document.
 Comments must not appear within attribute values.
 Comments cannot be nested inside the other comments.

XML - Character Entities

This chapter describes the XML Character Entities. Before we understand the
Character Entities, let us first understand what an XML entity is.

As put by W3 Consortium the definition of an entity is as follows −

"The document entity serves as the root of the entity tree and a starting-point for
an XML processor".

This means, entities are the placeholders in XML. These can be declared in the
document prolog or in a DTD. There are different types of entities and in this
chapter we will discuss Character Entity.

Both, HTML and XML, have some symbols reserved for their use, which cannot be
used as content in XML code. For example, < and > signs are used for opening
and closing XML tags. To display these special characters, the character entities
are used.

There are few special characters or symbols which are not available to be typed
directly from the keyboard. Character Entities can also be used to display those
symbols/special characters.

Types of Character Entities

There are three types of character entities −

 Predefined Character Entities

 Numbered Character Entities
 Named Character Entities

Predefined Character Entities

They are introduced to avoid the ambiguity while using some symbols. For
example, an ambiguity is observed when less than ( < ) or greater than ( > )
symbol is used with the angle tag (<>). Character entities are basically used to
delimit tags in XML. Following is a list of pre-defined character entities from XML
specification. These can be used to express characters without ambiguity.

 Ampersand − &amp;
 Single quote − &apos;
 Greater than − &gt;
 Less than − &lt;
 Double quote − &quot;

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Numeric Character Entities

The numeric reference is used to refer to a character entity. Numeric reference

can either be in decimal or hexadecimal format. As there are thousands of
numeric references available, these are a bit hard to remember. Numeric
reference refers to the character by its number in the Unicode character set.

General syntax for decimal numeric reference is −

&# decimal number ;

General syntax for hexadecimal numeric reference is −

&#x Hexadecimal number ;

The following table lists some predefined character entities with their numeric
values −

Entity name Character Decimal reference Hexadecimal reference

quot " &#34; &#x22;

amp & &#38; &#x26;

apos ' &#39; &#x27;

lt < &#60; &#x3C;

gt > &#62; &#x3E;

Named Character Entity

As it is hard to remember the numeric characters, the most preferred type of

character entity is the named character entity. Here, each entity is identified with
a name.

For example −

 'Aacute' represents capital character with acute accent.

 'ugrave' represents the small with grave accent.

XML - CDATA Sections

In this chapter, we will discuss XML CDATA section. The term CDATA means,
Character Data. CDATA is defined as blocks of text that are not parsed by the
parser, but are otherwise recognized as markup.

The predefined entities such as &lt;, &gt;, and &amp; require typing and are
generally difficult to read in the markup. In such cases, CDATA section can be
14
used. By using CDATA section, you are commanding the parser that the particular
section of the document contains no markup and should be treated as regular
text.

Syntax
Following is the syntax for CDATA section −

<![CDATA[
characters with markup
]]>

The above syntax is composed of three sections −

 CDATA Start section − CDATA begins with the nine-character

delimiter <![CDATA[
 CDATA End section − CDATA section ends with ]]> delimiter.
 CData section − Characters between these two enclosures are interpreted as
characters, and not as markup. This section may contain markup characters
(<, >, and &), but they are ignored by the XML processor.

Example

The following markup code shows an example of CDATA. Here, each character
written inside the CDATA section is ignored by the parser.

<script>
<![CDATA[
<message> Welcome to TutorialsPoint </message>
]] >
</script >

In the above syntax, everything between <message> and </message> is treated

as character data and not as markup.

CDATA Rules
The given rules are required to be followed for XML CDATA −

 CDATA cannot contain the string "]]>" anywhere in the XML document.
 Nesting is not allowed in CDATA section.

XML - WhiteSpaces

In this chapter, we will discuss whitespace handling in XML documents. Whitespace

is a collection of spaces, tabs, and newlines. They are generally used to make a
document more readable.

XML document contains two types of whitespaces - Significant Whitespace and

Insignificant Whitespace. Both are explained below with examples.
15
Significant Whitespace
A significant Whitespace occurs within the element which contains text and
markup present together. For example −

<name>TanmayPatil</name>

and

<name>Tanmay Patil</name>

The above two elements are different because of the space

between Tanmay and Patil. Any program reading this element in an XML file is
obliged to maintain the distinction.

Insignificant Whitespace
Insignificant whitespace means the space where only element content is allowed.
For example −

<address.category = "residence">
or
<address....category = "..residence">

The above examples are same. Here, the space is represented by dots (.). In the
above example, the space between address and category is insignificant.

A special attribute named xml:space may be attached to an element. This

indicates that whitespace should not be removed for that element by the
application. You can set this attribute to default or preserve as shown in the
following example −

<!ATTLIST address xml:space (default|preserve) 'preserve'>

Where,

 The value default signals that the default whitespace processing modes of
an application are acceptable for this element.
 The value preserve indicates the application to preserve all the whitespaces.
XML - Processing

This chapter describes the Processing Instructions (PIs). As defined by the XML 1.0
Recommendation,

"Processing instructions (PIs) allow documents to contain instructions for

applications. PIs are not part of the character data of the document, but MUST be
passed through to the application.

16
Processing instructions (PIs) can be used to pass information to applications. PIs
can appear anywhere in the document outside the markup. They can appear in
the prolog, including the document type definition (DTD), in textual content, or
after the document.

Syntax
Following is the syntax of PI − <?target instructions?>

Where

 target − Identifies the application to which the instruction is directed.

 instruction − A character that describes the information for the application to
process.

A PI starts with a special tag <? and ends with ?>. Processing of the contents ends
immediately after the string ?> is encountered.

Example

PIs are rarely used. They are mostly used to link XML document to a style sheet.
Following is an example −

<?xml-stylesheet href = "tutorialspointstyle.css" type = "text/css"?>

Here,the target is xml-

stylesheet. href="tutorialspointstyle.css" and type="text/css" are data or instructi
ons the target application will use at the time of processing the given XML
document.

In this case, a browser recognizes the target by indicating that the XML should be
transformed before being shown; the first attribute states that the type of the
transform is XSL and the second attribute points to its location.

Processing Instructions Rules

A PI can contain any data except the combination ?>, which is interpreted as the
closing delimiter. Here are two examples of valid PIs −

<?welcome to pg = 10 of tutorials point?>

<?welcome?>

XML - Encoding

17
Encoding is the process of converting unicode characters into their equivalent
binary representation. When the XML processor reads an XML document, it
encodes the document depending on the type of encoding. Hence, we need to
specify the type of encoding in the XML declaration.

Encoding Types
There are mainly two types of encoding −

 UTF-8
 UTF-16

UTF stands for UCS Transformation Format, and UCS itself means Universal
Character Set. The number 8 or 16 refers to the number of bits used to represent
a character. They are either 8(1 to 4 bytes) or 16(2 or 4 bytes). For the
documents without encoding information, UTF-8 is set by default.

Syntax
Encoding type is included in the prolog section of the XML document. The syntax
for UTF-8 encoding is as follows −

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8" standalone = "no" ?>

The syntax for UTF-16 encoding is as follows −

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-16" standalone = "no" ?>

Example

Following example shows the declaration of encoding −

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8" standalone = "no" ?>

<contact-info>
<name>Tanmay Patil</name>
<company>TutorialsPoint</company>
<phone>(011) 123-4567</phone>
</contact-info>

In the above example encoding="UTF-8", specifies that 8-bits are used to

represent the characters. To represent 16-bit characters, UTF-16 encoding can be
used.

The XML files encoded with UTF-8 tend to be smaller in size than those encoded
with UTF-16 format.

XML - Validation

Validation is a process by which an XML document is validated. An XML document

is said to be valid if its contents match with the elements, attributes and
18
associated document type declaration(DTD), and if the document complies with
the constraints expressed in it. Validation is dealt in two ways by the XML parser.
They are −

 Well-formed XML document

 Valid XML document

Well-formed XML Document

An XML document is said to be well-formed if it adheres to the following rules −

 Non DTD XML files must use the predefined character entities
for amp(&), apos(single quote), gt(>), lt(<), quot(double quote).
 It must follow the ordering of the tag. i.e., the inner tag must be closed before
closing the outer tag.
 Each of its opening tags must have a closing tag or it must be a self ending
tag.(<title>....</title> or <title/>).
 It must have only one attribute in a start tag, which needs to be quoted.
 amp(&), apos(single quote), gt(>), lt(<), quot(double quote) entities other than
these must be declared.

Example

Following is an example of a well-formed XML document −

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8" standalone = "yes" ?>

<!DOCTYPE address
[
<!ELEMENT address (name,company,phone)>
<!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT company (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT phone (#PCDATA)>
]>

<address>
<name>Tanmay Patil</name>
<company>TutorialsPoint</company>
<phone>(011) 123-4567</phone>
</address>

The above example is said to be well-formed as −

 It defines the type of document. Here, the document type is element type.
 It includes a root element named as address.
 Each of the child elements among name, company and phone is enclosed in
its self explanatory tag.
 Order of the tags is maintained.

Valid XML Document

19
If an XML document is well-formed and has an associated Document Type
Declaration (DTD), then it is said to be a valid XML document. We will study more
about DTD in the chapter XML - DTDs.

XML - DTDs

The XML Document Type Declaration, commonly known as DTD, is a way to

describe XML language precisely. DTDs check vocabulary and validity of the
structure of XML documents against grammatical rules of appropriate XML
language.

An XML DTD can be either specified inside the document, or it can be kept in a
separate document and then liked separately.

Syntax
Basic syntax of a DTD is as follows −

<!DOCTYPE element DTD identifier

[
declaration1
declaration2
........
]>

In the above syntax,

 The DTD starts with <!DOCTYPE delimiter.

 An element tells the parser to parse the document from the specified root
element.
 DTD identifier is an identifier for the document type definition, which may be
the path to a file on the system or URL to a file on the internet. If the DTD is
pointing to external path, it is called External Subset.
 The square brackets [ ] enclose an optional list of entity declarations
called Internal Subset.

Internal DTD
A DTD is referred to as an internal DTD if elements are declared within the XML
files. To refer it as internal DTD, standalone attribute in XML declaration must be
set to yes. This means, the declaration works independent of an external source.

Syntax

Following is the syntax of internal DTD −

<!DOCTYPE root-element [element-declarations]>

where root-element is the name of root element and element-declarations is

where you declare the elements.
20
Example

Following is a simple example of internal DTD −

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8" standalone = "yes" ?>

<!DOCTYPE address [
<!ELEMENT address (name,company,phone)>
<!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT company (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT phone (#PCDATA)>
]>

<address>
<name>Tanmay Patil</name>
<company>TutorialsPoint</company>
<phone>(011) 123-4567</phone>
</address>

Let us go through the above code −

Start Declaration − Begin the XML declaration with the following statement.

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8" standalone = "yes" ?>

DTD − Immediately after the XML header, the document type declaration follows,
commonly referred to as the DOCTYPE −

<!DOCTYPE address [

The DOCTYPE declaration has an exclamation mark (!) at the start of the element
name. The DOCTYPE informs the parser that a DTD is associated with this XML
document.

DTD Body − The DOCTYPE declaration is followed by body of the DTD, where you
declare elements, attributes, entities, and notations.

<!ELEMENT address (name,company,phone)>

<!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT company (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT phone_no (#PCDATA)>

Several elements are declared here that make up the vocabulary of the <name>
document. <!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)> defines the element name to be of
type "#PCDATA". Here #PCDATA means parse-able text data.

End Declaration − Finally, the declaration section of the DTD is closed using a
closing bracket and a closing angle bracket (]>). This effectively ends the
definition, and thereafter, the XML document follows immediately.

21
Rules
 The document type declaration must appear at the start of the document
(preceded only by the XML header) − it is not permitted anywhere else within
the document.
 Similar to the DOCTYPE declaration, the element declarations must start with
an exclamation mark.
 The Name in the document type declaration must match the element type of
the root element.

External DTD
In external DTD elements are declared outside the XML file. They are accessed by
specifying the system attributes which may be either the legal .dtd file or a valid
URL. To refer it as external DTD, standalone attribute in the XML declaration must
be set as no. This means, declaration includes information from the external
source.

Syntax

Following is the syntax for external DTD −

<!DOCTYPE root-element SYSTEM "file-name">

where file-name is the file with .dtd extension.

Example

The following example shows external DTD usage −

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8" standalone = "no" ?>

<!DOCTYPE address SYSTEM "address.dtd">
<address>
<name>Tanmay Patil</name>
<company>TutorialsPoint</company>
<phone>(011) 123-4567</phone>
</address>

The content of the DTD file address.dtd is as shown −

<!ELEMENT address (name,company,phone)>

<!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT company (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT phone (#PCDATA)>

Types
You can refer to an external DTD by using either system identifiers or public
identifiers.

22
System Identifiers

A system identifier enables you to specify the location of an external file

containing DTD declarations. Syntax is as follows −

<!DOCTYPE name SYSTEM "address.dtd" [...]>

As you can see, it contains keyword SYSTEM and a URI reference pointing to the
location of the document.

Public Identifiers

Public identifiers provide a mechanism to locate DTD resources and is written as

follows −

<!DOCTYPE name PUBLIC "-//Beginning XML//DTD Address Example//EN">

As you can see, it begins with keyword PUBLIC, followed by a specialized

identifier. Public identifiers are used to identify an entry in a catalog. Public
identifiers can follow any format, however, a commonly used format is
called Formal Public Identifiers, or FPIs.

XML - Schemas

XML Schema is commonly known as XML Schema Definition (XSD). It is used to

describe and validate the structure and the content of XML data. XML schema
defines the elements, attributes and data types. Schema element supports
Namespaces. It is similar to a database schema that describes the data in a
database.

Syntax
You need to declare a schema in your XML document as follows −

Example
The following example shows how to use schema −

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>

<xs:schema xmlns:xs = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xs:element name = "contact">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name = "name" type = "xs:string" />
<xs:element name = "company" type = "xs:string" />
<xs:element name = "phone" type = "xs:int" />
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
23
</xs:schema>

The basic idea behind XML Schemas is that they describe the legitimate format
that an XML document can take.

Elements
As we saw in the XML - Elements chapter, elements are the building blocks of XML
document. An element can be defined within an XSD as follows −

<xs:element name = "x" type = "y"/>

Definition Types
You can define XML schema elements in the following ways −

Simple Type

Simple type element is used only in the context of the text. Some of the
predefined simple types are: xs:integer, xs:boolean, xs:string, xs:date. For
example −

<xs:element name = "phone_number" type = "xs:int" />

Complex Type

A complex type is a container for other element definitions. This allows you to
specify which child elements an element can contain and to provide some
structure within your XML documents. For example −

<xs:element name = "Address">

<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name = "name" type = "xs:string" />
<xs:element name = "company" type = "xs:string" />
<xs:element name = "phone" type = "xs:int" />
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>

In the above example, Address element consists of child elements. This is a

container for other <xs:element> definitions, that allows to build a simple hierarchy
of elements in the XML document.

Global Types

With the global type, you can define a single type in your document, which can be
used by all other references. For example, suppose you want to generalize
the person and company for different addresses of the company. In such case,
you can define a general type as follows −

24
<xs:element name = "AddressType">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name = "name" type = "xs:string" />
<xs:element name = "company" type = "xs:string" />
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>

Now let us use this type in our example as follows −

<xs:element name = "Address1">

<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name = "address" type = "AddressType" />
<xs:element name = "phone1" type = "xs:int" />
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>

<xs:element name = "Address2">

<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name = "address" type = "AddressType" />
<xs:element name = "phone2" type = "xs:int" />
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>

Instead of having to define the name and the company twice (once
for Address1 and once for Address2), we now have a single definition. This makes
maintenance simpler, i.e., if you decide to add "Postcode" elements to the
address, you need to add them at just one place.

Attributes
Attributes in XSD provide extra information within an element. Attributes
have name and type property as shown below −

<xs:attribute name = "x" type = "y"/>

XML - Tree Structure

An XML document is always descriptive. The tree structure is often referred to

as XML Tree and plays an important role to describe any XML document easily.

The tree structure contains root (parent) elements, child elements and so on. By
using tree structure, you can get to know all succeeding branches and sub-
branches starting from the root. The parsing starts at the root, then moves down
the first branch to an element, take the first branch from there, and so on to the
leaf nodes.
25
Example
Following example demonstrates simple XML tree structure −

<?xml version = "1.0"?>

<Company>
<Employee>
<FirstName>Tanmay</FirstName>
<LastName>Patil</LastName>
<ContactNo>1234567890</ContactNo>
<Email>[email protected]</Email>
<Address>
<City>Bangalore</City>
<State>Karnataka</State>
<Zip>560212</Zip>
</Address>
</Employee>
</Company>

Following tree structure represents the above XML document −

In the above diagram, there is a root element named as <company>. Inside that,
there is one more element <Employee>. Inside the employee element, there are
five branches named <FirstName>, <LastName>, <ContactNo>, <Email>, and
<Address>. Inside the <Address> element, there are three sub-branches, named
<City> <State> and <Zip>.

XML - DOM

The Document Object Model (DOM) is the foundation of XML. XML documents
have a hierarchy of informational units called nodes; DOM is a way of describing
those nodes and the relationships between them.

A DOM document is a collection of nodes or pieces of information organized in a

hierarchy. This hierarchy allows a developer to navigate through the tree looking

26
for specific information. Because it is based on a hierarchy of information, the
DOM is said to be tree based.

The XML DOM, on the other hand, also provides an API that allows a developer to
add, edit, move, or remove nodes in the tree at any point in order to create an
application.

Example
The following example (sample.htm) parses an XML document ("address.xml")
into an XML DOM object and then extracts some information from it with
JavaScript −

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<h1>TutorialsPoint DOM example </h1>
<div>
<b>Name:</b> <span id = "name"></span><br>
<b>Company:</b> <span id = "company"></span><br>
<b>Phone:</b> <span id = "phone"></span>
</div>
<script>
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
{// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
}
else
{// code for IE6, IE5
xmlhttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
xmlhttp.open("GET","/xml/address.xml",false);
xmlhttp.send();
xmlDoc = xmlhttp.responseXML;

document.getElementById("name").innerHTML=

xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("name")[0].childNodes[0].nodeValue;
document.getElementById("company").innerHTML=

xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("company")[0].childNodes[0].nodeValue;
document.getElementById("phone").innerHTML=

xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("phone")[0].childNodes[0].nodeValue;
</script>
</body>
</html>

Contents of address.xml are as follows −

<?xml version = "1.0"?>

<contact-info>
<name>Tanmay Patil</name>
<company>TutorialsPoint</company>
27
 <phone>(011) 123-4567</phone>
</contact-info>

Now let us keep these two files sample.htm and address.xml in the same
directory /xml and execute the sample.htm file by opening it in any browser. This
should produce the following output.

Here, you can see how each of the child nodes is extracted to display their values.

XML - Namespaces

A Namespace is a set of unique names. Namespace is a mechanisms by which

element and attribute name can be assigned to a group. The Namespace is
identified by URI(Uniform Resource Identifiers).

Namespace Declaration
A Namespace is declared using reserved attributes. Such an attribute name must
either be xmlns or begin with xmlns: shown as below −

<element xmlns:name = "URL">

Syntax
 The Namespace starts with the keyword xmlns.
 The word name is the Namespace prefix.
 The URL is the Namespace identifier.

Example
Namespace affects only a limited area in the document. An element containing
the declaration and all of its descendants are in the scope of the Namespace.
Following is a simple example of XML Namespace −

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>

<cont:contact xmlns:cont = "www.tutorialspoint.com/profile">
<cont:name>Tanmay Patil</cont:name>
<cont:company>TutorialsPoint</cont:company>
<cont:phone>(011) 123-4567</cont:phone>
</cont:contact>

28
Here, the Namespace prefix is cont, and the Namespace identifier (URI)
as www.tutorialspoint.com/profile. This means, the element names and attribute
names with the cont prefix (including the contact element), all belong to
the www.tutorialspoint.com/profile namespace.

XML - Databases

XML Database is used to store huge amount of information in the XML format. As
the use of XML is increasing in every field, it is required to have a secured place to
store the XML documents. The data stored in the database can be queried
using XQuery, serialized, and exported into a desired format.

XML Database Types

There are two major types of XML databases −

 XML- enabled
 Native XML (NXD)

XML - Enabled Database

XML enabled database is nothing but the extension provided for the conversion of
XML document. This is a relational database, where data is stored in tables
consisting of rows and columns. The tables contain set of records, which in turn
consist of fields.

Native XML Database

Native XML database is based on the container rather than table format. It can
store large amount of XML document and data. Native XML database is queried by
the XPath-expressions.

Native XML database has an advantage over the XML-enabled database. It is

highly capable to store, query and maintain the XML document than XML-enabled
database.

Example
Following example demonstrates XML database −

<?xml version = "1.0"?>

<contact-info>
<contact1>
<name>Tanmay Patil</name>
<company>TutorialsPoint</company>
<phone>(011) 123-4567</phone>
</contact1>

<contact2>

29
 <name>Manisha Patil</name>
<company>TutorialsPoint</company>
<phone>(011) 789-4567</phone>
</contact2>
</contact-info>

Here, a table of contacts is created that holds the records of contacts (contact1
and contact2), which in turn consists of three entities − name,
company and phone.

30