XML with correct syntax is "Well Formed" XML. XML validated against a DTD is "Valid" XML. Well Formed XML Documents A &...
XML with correct syntax is "Well Formed" XML.
XML validated against a DTD is "Valid" XML.
Well Formed XML Documents
A "Well Formed" XML document has correct XML syntax.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="ISO-8859-1"?> <note> <to>Tove</to> <from>Jani</from> <heading>Reminder</heading> <body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body> </note> |
Valid XML Documents
A "Valid" XML document is a "Well Formed" XML document, which also conforms to the rules of a Document Type Definition (DTD):<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!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)> ]> |
XML Schema
W3C supports an XML based alternative to DTD called XML Schema:<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> |
