xml syntax - writing xml and designing dtd's

XML Syntax - Writing XML and Designing DTD's

HTML – 1st Example

<html><head><title>Chocolate Cake</title><body>

Ingredient List<hr />

 2 cups flour

 1 cup sugar

 2 bars chocolate

 1 cup milk

 Instructions

<hr> Mix flour, sugar and milk

 Eat chocolate

 Bake at 400 degrees

</body></html>

XML Document Structure Text file containing Elements, Attributes & Text

<?xml version=“1.0” ?><Recipe name=“Chocolate Cake” type=“Desert” > <IngredientList> <Ingredient>2 cups flour</Ingredient> <Ingredient>1 cup sugar</Ingredient> </IngredientList> <Instruction>Sift the flour</Instruction></Recipe>

10 Rules – Well Formed XML1. Must start with XML declaration

<?xml version=“1.0” ?>

2. Must be only one document element

Valid Example(s)<?xml version=“1.0” ?>

<recipe>

</recipe>

or

<recipeBook>

<recipe></recipe>

<recipe></recipe>

</recipeBook>

Invalid Example

<?xml version=“1.0”?>

<recipe>

</recipe>

<recipe>

</recipe>

3. Match opening & closing tags

Carry over from html origins <hr> or <bold><italic></bold></italic> Browsers forgive, XML Parsers do NOT or <bold><italic></italic></bold> <recipe></recipe>

4. Comments allowed, but not inside attribute or element tag

5. Elements and Attributes must start with a letter

<Recipe> OK

<Second third=“false”> OK

<2nd> INVALID

<Recipe 2nd=“true”> INVALID

6. Attributes must go in the opening tag

Valid:

<recipe name=“Chocolate Cake”

category=“Desert”></recipe>

Invalid:

<recipe></recipe name=“Chocolate Cake”>

7. Attributes must be enclosed in matching quotes

Can use either single or double quotes but must use same type to start and end attribute value

Name=“Australian Computer Society”

Name=‘Australian Computer Society’

Let’s finish these rules!

8. Only simple text for attributes, no nested values. Nesting is allowed in elements, not in attributes.

9. Use < & > " and ' for special characters. < & > “ ‘

10. Write empty elements using <recipe /> syntax if no nested values, can still have attributes in tag <recipe type=“desert” />.

With these 10 rules, we have a “Well Formed” xml document

It means the xml can be read, processed or parsed. Doesn’t mean the structure makes sense.

<recipe model=“Holden”> <chapter></chapter> <engine cylinders=“4”></engine> <recipe>

Examples

Buggy dictionary Non-buggy dictionary FIDA

DTD – Document Type Definition

Allows us to define the exact elements and attributes for the document

These effectively become the rules of our own markup language, the extensible part of xml

DTD – really only defines the structure, limited in what you can validate in regards to the text values of the element or attribute.

Recipe DTD

<!ELEMENT Recipe (Name, Description?, Ingredients?, Instructions?)>

<!ELEMENT Name (#PCDATA)><!ELEMENT Ingredient (Qty, Item)><!ELEMENT Qty (#PCDATA)><!ATTLIST Qty unit CDATA #REQUIRED><!ELEMENT Item (#PCDATA)><!ATTLIST Item optional CDATA “0” isVegetarian

CDATA “true”>

Elements

Basic rules Start tag <tag_name> and end tag </tag_name> Tags must be nested

<tag1><tag2>…</tag2></tag1> Tags may be empty (no enclosed data)

<empty_tag/> Whitespace in element content usually ignored

<section> … </section> <section> … </section>

Element Declarations

Used to define new elements and their content <!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)>

<name> … </name>

Empty element has no content <!ELEMENT name EMPTY>

<name/>

When children allowed - any or model group <!ELEMENT name ANY> <!ELEMENT person (name, e-mail*)>

Model Groups

Used to define content of elements <!ELEMENT person (name, e-mail*)>

Used to define hierarchies of elements <!ELEMENT name (fname, surname)>

<!ELEMENT fname (#PCDATA)><!ELEMENT surname (#PCDATA)><!ELEMENT e-mail (#PCDATA)>

Control organisation of elements Sequence connector - ',' - (A, B, C) [then] Choice connector - '|' - (A | B | C) [or]

Model Group Quantity Indicators

Describe constraints on elements in DTDA? May occur [0..1]A+ Must occur [1..*]A* May occur [0..*]A | B Either A or BA, BA followed by B

(A, B)+((A,B?) | C+)*

Attributes

Provide additional information about an element Enclosed by quotes - either " or ' Case-sensitive May be character data or tokenized

value="Blue Peter" (character data) value = "blue" (single token) value = "red green blue" (tokens)

Values may be enumerated or defaulted (DTD)

Attribute Declarations

Attributes can be attached to elements Declared separately in ATTLIST declaration

<!ATTLIST tag … > Rest of definition specifies

attribute name attribute type default value

Attribute Names and Types

Attribute name <!ATTLIST tag nme type default> <!ATTLIST tag first_attr … secon_attr … third_attr … >

Attribute typesCDATANMTOKENNMTOKENSENTITYENTITIES

IDIDREFIDREFSNOTATIONname group

Attribute Types

CDATA Character data

NMTOKEN Single token

NMTOKENS Multiple tokens

ENTITY Attribute is entity ref

ENTITIES Multiple entity ref's

ID Unique ID

IDREF Match to ID

IDREFS Match to multiple ID's

NOTATION Describe non-XML data

Name group Restricted list

Attribute Types

CDATA <!ATTLIST person name CDATA … >

NMTOKEN <!ATTLIST mug color NMTOKEN … >

NMTOKENS <!ATTLIST temp values NMTOKENS … >

ENTITY <!ATTLIST person photo ENTITY … >

ENTITIES <!ATTLIST album photos ENTITIES …>

ID <!ATTLIST person id ID … >

IDREF <!ATTLIST person father IDREF … >

IDREFS <!ATTLIST person children IDREFS … >

NOTATION <!ATTLIST image format NOTATION (TeX|TIFF) …>

Name group <!ATTLIST point coord (X|Y|Z) … >

Attribute Types

CDATA name = "Tom Jones"

NMTOKEN color="red"

NMTOKENS values="12 15 34"

ENTITY photo="MyPic"

ENTITIES photos="pic1 pic2"

ID ID = "P09567"

IDREF IDREF="P09567"

IDREFS IDREFS="A01 A02"

NOTATION FORMAT="TeX"

Name group coord="X"

Default Attribute Values

Can specify a default attribute value for when its missing from XML document, or state that value must be entered #REQUIRED Must be specified #IMPLIED May be specifed "default" Default value if unspecified #FIXED Only one value allowed

<ATTLIST tag name type default><!ATTLIST seqlist sepchar NMTOKEN #REQUIRED type (alpha|num) "num"

Declarations

Instructions for the XML processor Format - <! … > or <! … [<! … >]>

Document type - <!DOCTYPE … > Character data - <![CDATA[ … ]]> Entities - <!ENTITY … > Notation - <!NOTATION … > Element - <!ELEMENT … > Attributes - <!ATTLIST … > <![INCLUDE[…]]> and <![IGNORE[…]]>

Document Type Declaration

Identifies the name of the document root element <!DOCTYPE My_XML_Doc>

May also add entity definitions and DTD <!DOCTYPE My_XML_Doc [ … ] >

<My_XML_Doc> ...</My_XML_Doc>

Comment Declaration

Comments are not considered part of XML document and should not be published 

Cannot have additional '--' in comment Cannot embed inside other declarations

Character Data Declaration

For occasions when text must contain uninterpreted markup characters Press <<<ENTER>>> <![CDATA[Press <<<ENTER>>>]]>

Processing Instructions

Information required by an external application Processing Instructions

Format - <? … ?> XML PI - <?xml version='1.0’ ?>

Confusingly, this is called the XML declaration, but is a processing instruction

Entities

XML document may be distributed among a number of files Each unit of information is called an entity Each entity has a name to identify it Defined using an entity declaration Used by calling an entity reference

When to use Entities

Use an entity when the information Is used in several places May be represented differently Is part of a larger document that needs to be split up to be

manageable Conforms to a data format other than XML

Types of Entity

Internal Entity Stored in main

document Text content only

External Entity Stored externally to

the main document Text or binary Can use to group

many internal entities together

General Entity Referred to in XML

document

Parameter Entity Referred to in markup

declarations in DTD

General Entities

Declared in 'Document Type Declaration' <!DOCTYPE My_XML_Doc [ <!ENTITY name "replacement"> ]>

<!ENTITY xml "eXtensible Markup Language">

The &xml; includes entities The eXtensible Markup Language includes entities

Parameter Entities

Declared in 'Document Type Declaration' <!DOCTYPE My_XML_Doc [ <!ENTITY % name "replacement"> ]>

<!ENTITY % param "(para | list)"> <!ELEMENT section (%param;)*>

External Entities

External Text Entities Location specified with SYSTEM keyword

<!ENTITY ent SYSTEM "/ENTS/MYENT.XML">

May specify with public identifier <!ENTITY ent PUBLIC "-//EBI//ENTITIES ents//EN" … >

External Binary Entities Need to identify format of data - NDATA

<!ELEMENT pic EMPTY><!ATTLIST pic name ENTITY #REQUIRED><!ENTITY photo SYSTEM "/ENTS/photo.tif" NDATA TIFF>

Referenced by empty element A photograph <pic name="photo"/>.

Restrictions on Entities

General text entities Can appear in element content

<para> … &ent; … </para> Can appear in attribute value

<para name="&ent;"> … </para> Can appear in internal entity content

<!ENTITY cod "&ent;"> Cannot appear in other parts of DTD

Restrictions on Entities (2)

Binary entities If entity content is not XML, the entity cannot be used as a

textual reference Error - <!ELEMENT sec (para|&photo;)> Error - <para> &photo; </para>

Binary entity can only appear as an attribute of type ENTITY <!ENTITY photo SYSTEM "photo.tif" NDATA TIFF>…<!ELEMENT pic (#PCDATA)><!ATTLIST pic name ENTITY #REQUIRED>

Parameter Entities

Use parameter entities within DTD <!ENTITY % common "(para|list|table)">

<!ELEMENT chapter ((%common;)*, section*)><!ELEMENT section (%common;)*>

Safest to include parentheses in entity definition and around entity reference

Putting it all together...

Have now been introduced to the main components and rules of XML and DTD’s Entities, elements, declarations, processing instructions,

attribute lists

Use all these components in the 'Document Definition Type' (DTD) to specify the rules about the format of the XML document

xml syntax - writing xml and designing dtd's

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