XML: What, Why, When

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XML What, Why, When How?

• Hope Greenberg
• Center for Teaching Learning
• June 11 18

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The Plan
XML What, Why, When and How

• Day One
• Introduction/history, XML, XHTML
• Day Two
• Alphabet soup
• DTDs,
• XSL XSLT, XPATH
• Hon Men CSS, XSL-FO, XPOINTER, XLINK, SAX, DOM

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Recap The Pieces
XML What, Why, When and How

• An xml file can be
• Well-formed (follows general XML rules)
• Valid (the above plus specific rules as defined
  in the DTD or Schema)
• Parser checks the XML file for conformity
• DTD/Schema defines the rules for the xml file
• Stylesheet(s) defines how file will be displayed
  or used

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XML The Pieces
XML What, Why, When and How
css
web
xhtml.xsl
XML File
print.xsl
pda.xsl
pda
DTD/Schema
Parser
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DTD vs. Schema
XML What, Why, When and How

• Schema
• Data Typing
• date field
• number field
• Expressed as XML
• Plural schemas!

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XML File The Pieces
XML What, Why, When and How

• Declaration
• Processing Instructions
• Elements
• (tag, attributes, content PCDATA)
• Entities
• Character, files,
• Comments
• CDATA

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XML File The Pieces
XML What, Why, When and How

• Declaration (what am I?)
• Processing Instructions (what will you do with
  me?)
• Elements (what am I made of?)
• (tag, attributes, content PCDATA)
• Entities (what else do we need?)
• Character, files,
• Comments (secret messages)
• CDATA (just like this or else)

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XML File The Pieces
XML What, Why, When and How

• Declaration
• lt?xml version1.0 encodingUTF-16
  standaloneyesgt
• Processing instruction
• lt?xml-stylesheet hrefclassic.xsl
  typetext/xml?gt

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XML File The Pieces
XML What, Why, When and How

• Elements
• (tag, attributes, content PCDATA)
• ltpgtHello World!lt/pgt
• ltp typeclichedgtHello World!lt/pgt
• Entities
• Character
• amp xDE
• Text or other external
• lt!ENTITY lady SYSTEM http//www.uvm.edu/hag/lady
  .jpeg NDATA jpeggt
• ltfigure entityladygtlt/figuregt

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XML File Some Rules
XML What, Why, When and How

• XML documents use a self-describing syntax.
• XML tags are case sensitive.
• All XML elements must have a closing tag.
• All XML elements must be properly nested.
• All XML documents must have a root element.
• Attribute values must always be quoted.
• and think about what information you want to
  capture as well as how stylesheets might
  determine your choices

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The Invitation
XML What, Why, When and How
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XML What, Why, When and How
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(No Transcript)
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Building a DTD
XML What, Why, When and How

• We will
• Use Oxygen to create the file
• Have it learn and save the structure
• Explore the structure
• Make some changes
• Add an entity

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XSL or CSS?
XML What, Why, When and How

• CSS Cascading StyleSheet
• describes formatting for structures
• streams
• XSL XSLT, XPATH, XSL-FO
• XSLT T is for Transformation
• XPATH find the matching pattern
• XSL-FO format objects
• trees

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XSLT
XML What, Why, When and How

• XSLT uses XPATH to find the parts of the source
  that match the template so it can transform the
  source into the result.

Source Tree
Result Tree
XSLT
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Beginnings The Declaration
XML What, Why, When and How

• Start with the correct declaration
• ltxslstylesheet version1.0 xmlnsxsl
  http//www.w3c.org/1999/XSL/Transformgt
• or
• ltxsltransform version1.0 xmlnsxsl
  http//www.w3c.org/1999/XSL/Transformgt

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Then What?
XML What, Why, When and How

• Start adding templates
• ltxsltemplate match"front"gt
• lth1 align"center"gt
• ltxslapply-templates/gt
• lt/h1gt
• lt/xsltemplategt

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More Templates
XML What, Why, When and How

• Selecting a value from an attribute
• ltxsltemplate match"party"gt
• lth2 align"center"gt
• ltxslvalue-of select"_at_type"/gt
• lt/h2gt
• lt/xsltemplategt

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Odds and Ends
XML What, Why, When and How

• Some XML Applications
• TEI Text Encoding Initiative
• EAD Encoded Archival Description
• Dublin Core Metadata
• see Cover pages
• http//www.coverpages.org

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Next?
XML What, Why, When and How

• What should you do about XML?
• hint youre doing it!
• What about XHTML?
• Tidy up http//infohound.net/tidy
• Google on
• XML tutorial
• XSL Tutorial
• Try some software
• http//www.xmlsoftware.com

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Questions?
XML What, Why, When and How

• Hope Greenberg
• hope.greenberg_at_uvm.edu