Author: Mostafa

XML DOM Tutorial

What is the DOM?

The DOM defines a standard for accessing and manipulating documents:

“The W3C Document Object Model (DOM) is a platform and language-neutral interface that allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content, structure, and style of a document.”

The HTML DOM defines a standard way for accessing and manipulating HTML documents. It presents an HTML document as a tree-structure.

The XML DOM defines a standard way for accessing and manipulating XML documents. It presents an XML document as a tree-structure.

Understanding the DOM is a must for anyone working with HTML or XML.

Continue reading XML DOM Tutorial

XML on the Server

XML files are plain text files just like HTML files.

XML can easily be stored and generated by a standard web server.

Storing XML Files on the Server

XML files can be stored on an Internet server exactly the same way as HTML files.

Start Windows Notepad and write the following lines:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<note>
  <from>Jani</from>
  <to>Tove</to>
  <message>Remember me this weekend</message>
</note>

Save the file on your web server with a proper name like “note.xml”.

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XML Schema

An XML Schema describes the structure of an XML document, just like a DTD.

An XML document with correct syntax is called “Well Formed”.

An XML document validated against an XML Schema is both “Well Formed” and “Valid”.

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XML DTD

An XML document with correct syntax is called “Well Formed”.

An XML document validated against a DTD is both “Well Formed” and “Valid”.

What is a DTD?

DTD stands for Document Type Definition.

A DTD defines the structure and the legal elements and attributes of an XML document.

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XML, XLink and XPointer

XLink is used to create hyperlinks in XML documents.

  • XLink is used to create hyperlinks within XML documents
  • Any element in an XML document can behave as a link
  • With XLink, the links can be defined outside the linked files
  • XLink is a W3C Recommendation

XLink Browser Support

There is no browser support for XLink in XML documents.

However, all major browsers support XLinks in SVG.

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XML and XQuery

What is XQuery?

XQuery is to XML what SQL is to databases.

XQuery was designed to query XML data.

XQuery Example

for $x in doc("books.xml")/bookstore/book
where $x/price>30
order by $x/title
return $x/title

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XML and XSLT

With XSLT you can transform an XML document into HTML.

Displaying XML with XSLT

XSLT (eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) is the recommended style sheet language for XML.

XSLT is far more sophisticated than CSS. With XSLT you can add/remove elements and attributes to or from the output file. You can also rearrange and sort elements, perform tests and make decisions about which elements to hide and display, and a lot more.

XSLT uses XPath to find information in an XML document. Continue reading XML and XSLT

XML and XPath

What is XPath?

XPath is a major element in the XSLT standard.

XPath can be used to navigate through elements and attributes in an XML document.

  • XPath is a syntax for defining parts of an XML document
  • XPath uses path expressions to navigate in XML documents
  • XPath contains a library of standard functions
  • XPath is a major element in XSLT and in XQuery
  • XPath is a W3C recommendation

XPath Path Expressions

XPath uses path expressions to select nodes or node-sets in an XML document. These path expressions look very much like the expressions you see when you work with a traditional computer file system.

XPath expressions can be used in JavaScript, Java, XML Schema, PHP, Python, C and C++, and lots of other languages.

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XML DOM

What is the DOM?

The Document Object Model (DOM) defines a standard for accessing and manipulating documents:

“The W3C Document Object Model (DOM) is a platform and language-neutral interface that allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content, structure, and style of a document.”

The HTML DOM defines a standard way for accessing and manipulating HTML documents. It presents an HTML document as a tree-structure.

The XML DOM defines a standard way for accessing and manipulating XML documents. It presents an XML document as a tree-structure.

Understanding the DOM is a must for anyone working with HTML or XML.

Continue reading XML DOM

XML Parser

All major browsers have a built-in XML parser to access and manipulate XML.

XML Parser

The XML DOM (Document Object Model) defines the properties and methods for accessing and editing XML.

However, before an XML document can be accessed, it must be loaded into an XML DOM object.

All modern browsers have a built-in XML parser that can convert text into an XML DOM object.

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