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Document Type Definition (DTD) : Author: Lukasz Kurgan

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162 views

Document Type Definition (DTD) : Author: Lukasz Kurgan

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chitra devi
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CSCI 7818 (Topics in Software Engineering) Web Infrastructure, Services, and Applications

Document Type Definition


(DTD)

Author: Lukasz Kurgan


DTD by Lukasz Kurgan

What is DTD?

• DTD is used to declare each of the building blocks


(elements) used in a XML document

• DTD defines:
– a structure of the XML document
– a list of legal elements of the XML document
DTD by Lukasz Kurgan

Well-Formed vs. Valid Document

• Well-formed document – the document that adheres


to the XML syntax rules

• Valid document – the document that adheres to the


rules defined in the corresponding DTD document

Only the valid documents are valuable in terms of


sharing and retrieving information.
DTD by Lukasz Kurgan

Internal vs. External DTD

What is wrong here ?


DTD by Lukasz Kurgan

Internal vs. External DTD

• External DTD are better because of:


– possibility of sharing definitions between XML documents
– The documents that share the same DTD are more uniform and easier
to retrieve

• Linking in the DTD document


<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE note SYSTEM “note.dtd">
<note>
<to>Ken Anderson</to>
<from>Lukasz Kurgan</from>
<text>Ok! We can see some progress</text>
</note>
DTD by Lukasz Kurgan

Building blocks of XML


• XML documents (and HTML documents) are made up by the
following building blocks:
Description Examples in HTML Examples in XML
Elements main building blocks body,table note, from

Tags used to markup elements <body></body> <from></from>

Attributes provide extra information about <img src="computer.gif" /> <note att=“abc.xml" />
elements
Entities variables used to define common &nbsp; &amp; &quot; &apos;
text
PCDATA PCDATA means parsed character data. PCDATA is text that will be parsed by a
parser. Tags inside the text will be treated as markup and entities will be expanded. 
CDATA CDATA means character data. CDATA is text that will NOT be parsed by a parser.
Tags inside the text will NOT be treated as markup and entities will not be
expanded.
DTD by Lukasz Kurgan

Declaring Elements in DTD


An element declaration has the following syntax:
<!ELEMENT element-name (element-content)>

– Elements name cannot include <> characters and must start with
letter or underscore
– Elements name can include namespace declaration:
Namespace:element-name
DTD by Lukasz Kurgan

Declaring Elements in DTD


Details on element declarations:
Empty elements
<!ELEMENT element-name (EMPTY)>

Elements with data


<!ELEMENT element-name (#CDATA)>
<!ELEMENT element-name (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT element-name (ANY)>

Elements with children (sequences)


<!ELEMENT note (to,from,text)>
<!ELEMENT to (#CDATA)>
<!ELEMENT from (#CDATA)>
<!ELEMENT text (#CDATA)>
DTD by Lukasz Kurgan

Declaring Elements in DTD


Details on element declarations:
Declaring zero or more occurrences of the same element 
<!ELEMENT element-name (child-name*)>

Declaring minimum one occurrence of the same element


<!ELEMENT element-name (child-name+)>

Declaring mixed content


<!ELEMENT note (to+,from,message*,#PCDATA)>
The example above declares that the element note must contain at least one to child
element, exactly one header, zero or more message, and some other parsed character data.
DTD by Lukasz Kurgan

Declaring Attributes in DTD


XML element attributes are declared with an ATTLIST
declaration. An attribute declaration has the following syntax:
<!ATTLIST element-name attribute-name attribute-type default-value>

value explanation
attribute-type CDATA character data
(eval|eval|..) enumerated value
ID unique id
NMTOKEN valid XML name
default-value #DEFAULT value default value
#REQUIRED must be included in the element
#IMPLIED does not have to be included
#FIXED value value is fixed
DTD by Lukasz Kurgan

Declaring Attributes in DTD


Attribute declaration example
DTD example:
<!ELEMENT square EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST square width CDATA "0">

XML example:
<square width="100"></square>
DTD by Lukasz Kurgan

Entities in DTD

• Variables used to define shortcuts to common text

• Entity references are references to entities

• Can be declared internally or externally


DTD by Lukasz Kurgan

Internal Entities in DTD


Define shortcuts to common text
Syntax:
<!ENTITY entity-name "entity-value">

Example:

In DTD:
<!ENTITY writer “Robert Eckstein">
<!ENTITY copyright “&#xA9;”>

In XML:
<author>&copyright; &writer;</author>
DTD by Lukasz Kurgan

External Entities in DTD


Allow to copy the XML content located at specified URI into the
current XML document
Syntax:
<!ENTITY entity-name SYSTEM "URI/URL">

Example:
In DTD:
<!ENTITY article SYSTEM “http://www.articles.com/DTD.xml">
In XML:
<articles_xml>
<heading>Article from www.articles.com</heading>
&article;
</articles_xml>
DTD by Lukasz Kurgan

HTML=XML+DTD+XSL

BROWSER

Request for a XML page

XML page DTD page

XSL style sheet

HTML page
returned
DTD by Lukasz Kurgan

“Bigger” Example
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE MLBibliographies SYSTEM "default.dtd">
<MLBibliographies>
<PageTitle>Machine Learning Bibliographies</PageTitle>
<PageSubTitle>Maintained by Lukasz Kurgan</PageSubTitle>
<Category href="FeatureSelection.xml"> 1. Feature Selection</Category>
<Category href="RuleInduction.xml"> 2. Rule Induction</Category>
<Category href=""> 3. Discretization</Category>
<Category href=""> 4. Learning Ensemble of Classifiers</Category>
<LastUpdate> 09/11/01</LastUpdate>
</MLBibliographies>

DTD document
<!ELEMENT MLBibliographies (PageTitle, PageSubTitle, Category*, LastUpdate, Publication*)>
<!ELEMENT PageTitle (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT PageSubTitle (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT Category (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT LastUpdate (#PCDATA)>
<!ATTLIST Category href CDATA #IMPLIED>
DTD by Lukasz Kurgan

Why use the DTD?


• XML provides an application independent way of
sharing data

• With a DTD, independent groups of people can agree


to use a common DTD for interchanging data

• Your application can use a standard DTD to verify that


data that you receive from the outside world is valid

• You can also use a DTD to verify your own data


DTD by Lukasz Kurgan

Links
Demo:
http://isl1.cudenver.edu/default.dtd

Simple Tutorial:
http://www.xml101.com/dtd/dtd_intro.asp

Sample XML pages that use DTD and XSL:


http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_examples.asp
http://www.ceth.rutgers.edu/intromat/xml/samples3/samples.htm
DTD by Lukasz Kurgan

My Impressions
• XML = extremely syntax sensitive
– good thing that assures unification and accessibility of the
knowledge on the net

• Long learning curve


– Hard to learn, difficult to display as HTML. People will resist
learning it
– Thus, the strong need for good XML editors

• Good Tutorial sites are really needed!


• But, the XML is the only tool that can result in the next
generation of the WWW

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