Anatomy xml

8/11/2019 Anatomy xml

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Introduction to XMLJohn Arnett, MScStandards Modeller

Information and Statistics DivisionNHSScotlandTel: 0131 551 8073 (x2073)mailto:[email protected]://isdscotland.org/xml


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Contents

What is XML?

Anatomy of an XML Document

Conformance and Validation Summary

Find Out More


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What is XML?

a programming language

a software panacea an object-oriented technology

HTML with funny tags

a replacement for HTML but it isre-shaping publishing on the web

XML is not


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What is XML?

Meta-markup language derived

from SGML (Standard GeneralisedMarkup Language)

Open Standard, currently XML 1.02ndedition (W3C Recommendation

6 October 2000)

Stands for Extensible Markup Language


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What is XML?

XML is the universal format for

structured documents and data onthe Web

A data object is an XML documentif it is well-formed, as defined in [the

W3C]specification(more on this later)

W3C says


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What is XML?

Data Content and Presentation

Sample dataset

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0

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SEX

15061976SarahJackson147678

12111979LesleyMartin111672

23081983AlisonMcKenzie198457

06011971IanJones134376

DOBFORENAMESURNAMEID

Flat file, database, spreadsheet, etc


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Recorddata oriented structure

111672 Martin Lesley 0 12111979

What is XML?

Structured

Searchable Easy to understand

Portable


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What is XML?

HTMLdocument oriented structureRecord Id:11672

Surname:MartinGiven Name:Lesley

Sex:Male

Date of Birth:12 November 1979

Record Id: 11672Surname: MartinGiven Name: Lesley

Sex: Male

Date of Birth:12 November 1979

Easy to understand Portable

Structured

Searchable


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What is XML?

XML to the rescue!


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What is XML?

Text based

Open standards Widely used

HTML and XML are


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What is XML?

Structured

Separates data from presentation Self-describing

Searchable

Extensible i.e. any number of tags allowed

But XML also


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character data

tab, carriage return and line feed Unicode characters

markup

XML documents consist of text


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Markup

Hello, World Wide Web!

start-, end- and empty element tags

tag names are case sensitive!

entity and character references

comments


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Character data


Reserved characters

&, ,and


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Root Element


Uniquely named element

Contains all the data and links toother documents


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Elements

XML Bible24.99


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Attributes


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Built-in entities& = &

= "< = = >

= '

Handling reserved characters

CDATASectionsgetX() < 5 && values[0] =>10) cerr


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Namespaces

Preventing naming collisions


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Conformance and Validation

One root element

Start and end tags matchcontent

Empty elements are terminated as

Tags are correctly nested All attributes enclosed in quotes

All XML processors must check well-formedness constraints


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Conformance and Validation

specified in Document TypeDefinitions(DTDs) or Schemas

a valid XML document must bewell-formed

a well-formed document need notnecessarily be valid

Validating XML processors checkagainst validityconstraints


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Document Type Definitions

DTD syntax able to specify

Element attributes

limited number of data types

default and fixed attribute values

Structure and order of child elements


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Document Type Definitions

Easy to understand and implement

Lightweight alternative to schemas But

use non-XML syntax

only limited support for datatyping and namespaces

difficult to extend

DTDs


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Schemas

Uses XML syntax

Provides built-in and supports user-defined data types

Supports namespaces

Provides several extensibilty

mechanisms

W3C Schema


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In Summary

A language for describing markuplanguages

Extensible, ie. define own tags Readable, structured and self

describing

Documents must be well-formed

Documents may be validated usingDTDs and/or Schemas


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Find Out More

World Wide Web Consortium

www.w3.org

W3C XML v1.0 Specification http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml
http://www.w3.org/http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xmlhttp://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xmlhttp://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xmlhttp://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xmlhttp://www.w3.org/


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Find Out More

The XML Industry Portal

www.xml.org

OReilly XML site www.xml.com

XML Cover Pages

www.oasis-open.org/cover/ Caf Con Leche

www.ibiblio.org/xml/
http://www.xml.org/http://www.xml.com/http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/http://www.ibiblio.org/xml/http://www.ibiblio.org/xml/http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/http://www.xml.com/http://www.xml.org/


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Find Out More

Scottish Health and Community CareXML Steering Group

www.isdscotland.org/xml
http://www.isdscotland.org/xmlhttp://www.isdscotland.org/xml


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XML Tools

XSV- Open Source XML SchemaValidator

www.ltg.ed.ac.uk/~ht/xsv-status.html MSXML 4.0

www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3144b72b-b4f2-

46da-b4b6-c5d7485f2b42
http://www.ltg.ed.ac.uk/~ht/xsv-status.htmlhttp://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3144b72b-b4f2-46da-b4b6-c5d7485f2b42http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3144b72b-b4f2-46da-b4b6-c5d7485f2b42http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3144b72b-b4f2-46da-b4b6-c5d7485f2b42http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3144b72b-b4f2-46da-b4b6-c5d7485f2b42http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3144b72b-b4f2-46da-b4b6-c5d7485f2b42http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3144b72b-b4f2-46da-b4b6-c5d7485f2b42http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3144b72b-b4f2-46da-b4b6-c5d7485f2b42http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3144b72b-b4f2-46da-b4b6-c5d7485f2b42http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3144b72b-b4f2-46da-b4b6-c5d7485f2b42http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3144b72b-b4f2-46da-b4b6-c5d7485f2b42http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3144b72b-b4f2-46da-b4b6-c5d7485f2b42http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3144b72b-b4f2-46da-b4b6-c5d7485f2b42http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=3144b72b-b4f2-46da-b4b6-c5d7485f2b42http://www.ltg.ed.ac.uk/~ht/xsv-status.htmlhttp://www.ltg.ed.ac.uk/~ht/xsv-status.htmlhttp://www.ltg.ed.ac.uk/~ht/xsv-status.html


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XML Tools

XML Spy 2004IDE

www.altova.com/products_ide.html

Free XML Tools and Software www.garshol.priv.no/download/xmlt

ools/
http://www.altova.com/products_ide.htmlhttp://www.garshol.priv.no/download/xmltools/http://www.garshol.priv.no/download/xmltools/http://www.garshol.priv.no/download/xmltools/http://www.garshol.priv.no/download/xmltools/http://www.altova.com/products_ide.html


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Printed Sources

Numerous printed sourcesfor moreinformation visit

Charles F. Goldfarb's

www.xmlbooks.com

www.amazon.com
http://www.xmlbooks.com/http://www.amazon.com/http://www.amazon.com/http://www.xmlbooks.com/