Intro to XML

Slide 0
July 11, 2001

Introduction to XML

Frank Tompa and Airi Salminen

University of Waterloo
{fwtompa, asalminen}@db.uwaterloo.ca

July 11, 2001

 Intro to XML
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July 11, 2001
Outline

1. Why XML evolved

2. What is XML?
3. XML 1.0 fundamentals
4. XML family of languages
5. How to use XML
6. Naming conventions: Namespaces
7. Hypertext facilities: XPath, XPointer, XLink
8. Querying and transforming: XQuery and XSLT
9. Applications
10. Challenges
 Intro to XML
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1. Why XML evolved
1960-1980 Infrastructure for the Internet

1986 SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language)

for defining and representing structured documents
1991 WWW and HTML introduced for the Internet

1991 Business adopts the WWW technology; huge

expansion in the use of the Internet
1995 New kinds of businesses evolve, based on the
connectivity of people all over the world and connectivity of
applications built by various software providers (B2C, B2B)

Urgent need for a new, common data format for the Internet
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1. Why XML evolved

 Needs:
• Simple, common rules that are easy to
understand by people with different
backgrounds (like HTML)
• Capability to describe Internet resources and
their relationships (like HTML)
• Capability to define information structures
for different kinds of business sectors (unlike
HTML, like SGML)
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1. Why XML evolved

 Needs (cont’d):
• Format formal enough for computers and
clear enough to be human-legible (like
SGML)
• Rules simple enough to allow easy building
of software (unlike SGML)
• Strong support for diverse natural languages
(unlike SGML)
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2. What is XML?
XML = Extensible Markup Language
A set of rules for defining and representing
information as structured documents for applications
on the Internet; a restricted form of SGML
T. Bray, J. Paoli, and C. M. Sperberg-McQueen (Eds.), Extensible
Markup Language (XML) 1.0,
W3C Recommendation 10- February-1998,
http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-xml-19980210/.

T. Bray, J. Paoli, C. M. Sperberg-McQueen, and E. Maler (Eds.),

Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Second Edition),
W3C Recommendation 6 October 2000,
http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-xml-20001006/.
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2. What is XML?

 Rule 1: Information is represented in units

called XML documents.
 Rule 2: An XML document contains one or
more elements.
 Rule 3: An element has a name, it is
denoted in the document by explicit
markup, it can contain other elements, and
it can be associated with attributes.
and lots of other rules ...
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2. What is XML?
Example of an XML document
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<catalog>
<product category = "mobile phone">
<mfg>Nokia</mfg><model>8890</model>
<description>
Intended for EGSM 900 and GSM 1900 networks …
</description>
<clock setting= "nist" alarm = "yes"/>
</product>
<product category = "mobile phone">
<mfg>Ericsson</mfg><model>A3618</model>
<description>...</description>
</product>
...
</catalog>
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2. What is XML?
Classes of text markup
descriptive (the previous example)
presentational Mobile phones:
Nokia 8890
Ericsson A3618
procedural <document>
<newPage style="box"/>
<bold>Mobile phones:</bold>
<list>
<newItem/><italic>Nokia 8890</italic>
<newItem/><italic>Ericsson A3618</italic>
</list>
</document>

XML is primarily for descriptive markup.

 Intro to XML
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2. What is XML?

XML is a metalanguage, not a specific language.

 Defines the rules how to mark up a document
— does not define the names used in markup
 Includes capability to prescribe a Document
Type Definition (DTD) to constrain the markup
permitted in a class of documents
 Intended for all natural languages, regardless of
character set, orientation of script, etc.
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3. XML 1.0 fundamentals

Physical (storage) units

 XML document comprises one or more entities
• A “document entity” serves as the root
• Other entities may include
– external portion of DTD
– parsed character data, which replaces any references to the entity
– unparsed data

 Entities located by URIs

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3. XML 1.0 fundamentals
 XML declaration: <?xml version=”1.0”?>
 Logical data components:
• Markup vocabulary: elements, attributes
<product category = "mobile phone">
<mfg>Nokia</mfg><model>8890</model>
... <clock setting = "nitz" alarm = "yes"/> ...
</product>
• White space
• Parsed and unparsed character data
• Entity references &diagram;
• Comments <!-- how interesting… -->
• Processing instructions
<?xml-stylesheet href="catalog-style.css" type="text/css"?>
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3. XML 1.0 fundamentals
 Markup declarations (the DTD):
• Internal vs. external declarations
• Root document type
• Element types: EMPTY, children, mixed, ANY
<!ELEMENT category (mfg, model, description , clock?)>
<!ELEMENT description (#PCDATA | feature)*>
<!ELEMENT clock EMPTY>

• Attribute types: CDATA, ID, IDREF(-S),

ENTITY(-TIES), NMTOKEN(-S)
<!ATTLIST clock setting CDATA #IMPLIED
alarm (yes, no, dual) "yes" >

• Notations
• Entities
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3. XML 1.0 fundamentals
 Conformance:
• Well-formed:
– syntactically correct tags
– matching tags
– nested elements
– all entities declared before they are used
• Valid:
– well-formed
– DTD + doctype matches DTD
– unique IDs
– no dangling IDREFs
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3. XML 1.0 fundamentals

XML
document

XML may or may not

processor be “validating”

“XML Information Set”

application
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3. XML 1.0 fundamentals
 Example:
eXtensible Customer Information Language (xCIL)
• OASIS Customer Information Quality Committee
“… reliable and accurate customer information is now more
than ever essential in establishing effective customer
relationships ... need to develop a standard way of
describing Customers (e.g., Identity, Name, Address, etc.).”
• Built on
– eXtensible Name and Address Language (XNAL)
– two sub DTDs
 eXtensible Name Language (xNL)
 eXtensible Address Language (xAL)

 See details in next section of notes

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4. XML family of languages
 Specification of XML 1.0 was just the first
step in the development of languages for
the management of data on the Web.
http://www.w3.org/TR/ (W3C Technical Publications)

 XML-related languages fall into the

following classes:
• XML accessories
• XML transducers
• XML applications
(See third sectin of notes for details)
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4. XML family of languages
XML Accessory
Extends the capabilities specified in XML
Intended for wide, general use

Examples:
• XML Names: to allow qualified names
• XML Schema: extends the definition capabilities
• XPath: for addressing parts in XML documents
• XLink: to create hyperlinks between resources
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4. XML family of languages
XML Transducer

Converts XML input data into output

Associated with a processing model

Examples:
• XSLT: for document transformations
• CSS: for rendering
• XQuery: for querying
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4. XML family of languages
XML Application
Defines constraints for a class of XML data
Intended for a specific application area

Examples (developed at W3C):

• XHTML: reformulation of HTML 4.0

• RDF: to describe metadata for resources
• XML-Signature: for digital signatures
• XForms: for Web forms
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5. How to use XML

XML in an organization
 Various ways XML might occur:
• Encoding format for uninterpreted data
• Format for data interchange
• Format for managing information assets
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5. How to use XML

 Uninterpreted data
• Data accessed from the Internet and
forwarded with little or no processing to
another application
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5. How to use XML

 Data interchange
• Encoding of data
– on import, useful for dissecting data
– for export, provides added value to users

• Encoding of protocols
– designating functions and marshalling arguments

For diverse applications

– within an organization, to support integration
– among business partners, to support business collaboration;
requires negotiated agreement between partners
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5. How to use XML

 Information assets
• Maintained in an XML document repository
• Requires either development of proprietary
procedures for accessing and maintaining
assets or adoption (and adaptation) of rules
developed elsewhere
• May require major changes in organization’s
work processes
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6. Naming conventions
 Names play a key role
• For elements, attributes, entities and notations
• May be introduced (and limited) by a DTD

 Often need to use elements and attributes

originating from different environments (or
applications)
• Vocabularies in two environments may include
common names intended for different purposes
• If multiple declarations used in a single DTD, name
collisions must avoided
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6. Naming conventions
Example
 From BiblioML
<!-- A title of work or in a related title element. -->
<!ELEMENT Title (#PCDATA | NonSortingData)* >
<!ATTLIST Title
Type (Proper | AnotherAuthor | Parallel | OtherInfo) #IMPLIED
ISOLanguage CDATA #IMPLIED
Language CDATA #IMPLIED >
 From xNL
<!ELEMENT Title (#PCDATA) >
<!-- attribute defines type of title, eg. Sex, Honorary, Profession, etc. -->
<!ATTLIST Title
Type CDATA #IMPLIED>
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6. Naming conventions

XML namespaces
 Provides a method for qualifying element
and attribute names so that name collisions
can be avoided
 Motivation: modularity and documentation
If a well-understood markup vocabulary for
element and attribute names exists, it should be
re-used rather than re-invented, especially if
there is also software available.
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6. Naming conventions

XML namespaces
 Collection of names, identified by a URI
• No formal rules for defining names in a namespace

Example
• Namespace: http://uwaterloo.ca
• Element names: department, name, professor, student,
last_name, first_name, ...
• Global attribute names: id, ...
• Per-element-type attribute names: student: supervisor, ...
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6. Naming conventions

 Namespace declaration: defines a label

(prefix) for the namespace and associates it
to the namespace identifier (URI)
 Qualified name: a namespace prefix and a
local part, separated by a colon
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<report xmlns:uw="http://uwaterloo.ca">
<uw:department>
<uw:name>Department of Computer Science</uw:name>
...
</report>
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7. Hypertext facilities
 Hyperlink: cross-reference primarily for
presentation to a human
• Arc: two ends + direction  source and destination
• Traversal: following a link (for any purpose)
 HTML (review):
• “HyperText Markup Language” for WWW
• Supports simple (binary, unidirectional) links
– special elements <A> can be used as anchors
– named anchor (identified by id or name attribute) used as
destination
– anchor with href attribute is link source
– destination name matches href value (URI)
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7. Hypertext facilities
Examples
 For more information about links in HTML, please consult the <a
href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/links.html"> HTML
4.01 specification</a>
 <h2><a name="h-12.1">12.1</a> <a name="links">Introduction
to links</a> and <a name="anchors">anchors</a></h2>
 <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/links.html#links">
Introduction to links and anchors</a>
 <div class="navbar"> <a href="tables.html">previous</a> <a
href="objects.html">next</a> <a href="../cover.html#minitoc">
contents</a> <a href="../index/elements.html">elements</a> <a
href="../index/attributes.html">attributes</a> <a href=
"../index/list.html">index</a> </div>
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7. Hypertext facilities

<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/links.html#links">Introduction
to links and anchors</a>

 An HTML link has the following

characteristics:
• Comprises only one arc
• Expressed at source end
• Identifies destination end via URI
– N.B.: server has freedom in finding or dynamically creating destination
• Users can initiate traversal only from source end
• Hyperlink's effect (on windows, frames, go-back
lists, stylesheets in use, and so on) determined by
user agents, not by hyperlink itself
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7. Hypertext facilities
 XML not designed specifically for hypertext
 Nevertheless, XML provides:
• references to external entities (by URI references)
<!ENTITY spring SYSTEM "../grafix/flower.gif" NDATA gif >...
<figure picture="spring">

• references to elements in the same document (via

ID and IDREF attributes)
<!ELEMENT student (name address*)>
<!ATTLIST student id ID #REQUIRED
sibling-of IDREF #IMPLIED >
<student id="123"><name>Mikko</name></student>
<student id="425" sibling-of="123"><name>Liisa</name></student>
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7. Hypertext facilities
 Advanced techniques for referencing &
linking:
• XPath
– for addressing parts of XML document, typically node-sets
– intended to be used by other specifications
• XPointer
– extends addressing capabilities of XPath to include
locations within unstructured (i.e., text) components
– locations are points or ranges
• XLink
– for specifying links between resources
– made explicit by an XLink linking element
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7. Hypertext facilities
 XPath
• Single step: “axis::node-test[predicate]”
– axes: child, descendant, self, ancestor, following-sibling, etc.

• Path: sequence of steps separated by “/”

• Abbreviated notation

descendant-or-self::node( ) / child::book[attribute::year=2000] /
child::price
//book[@year=2000]/price
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7. Hypertext facilities
 XLink’s simple link
• One arc only
• From (implicit) local resource to remote resource
• May also include metadata
Example: <icr:attendees
xmlns:icr="http://icr.uwaterloo.ca/"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
xlink:type="simple"
xlink:href="students.xml"
xlink:role="http://icr.uwaterloo.ca/courses/attendees"
xlink:title="Attendee List for XML Short Course"
xlink:show="new"
xlink:actuate="onRequest">
Participants from Industry
</ icr:attendees >
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7. Hypertext facilities
 XLink’s extended link
• Associates an arbitrary number of resources
• Any combination of remote and local resources
• Separate elements specify resources and arcs
– <… xlink:type="locator" xlink:label="..." …> for remote resources
– <… xlink:type="resource" xlink:label="..." …> for local resources
– <… xlink:type="arc" xlink:from="..." xlink:to="..." …> for arcs

 Often stored separately from the resources they

associate  linkbases
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7. Hypertext facilities
Example
<icr:class
xmlns:icr="http://icr.uwaterloo.ca/"
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
xlink:type="extended"
<icr:attendees xlink:type="locator" xlink:label="class"
xlink:href="students.xml"
xlink:role="http://icr.uwaterloo.ca/courses/attendees"
xlink:title="Attendee List for XML Short Course" />
<icr:instructors xlink:type="resource" xlink:label="teacher"
xlink:title="Attendee List for XML Short Course" >
Joe Smith </icr:instructors>
<icr:enrol xlink:type="arc" xlink:from="teacher" xlink:to="class"
xlink:show="replace" xlink:actuate="onRequest" />
Participants in XML Short Course
</ icr:class >
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8. Querying and transforming
 Roots in conventional database querying +
information retrieval + Web search engines
 David Maier's desiderata
– Preserve order and association; produce XML output
– Suitable for documents, business records, and metadata
– Support for new datatypes
– Support {selection, extraction, reduction, restructuring, combination}
– No schema required, but exploit available schema
– XML representation; mutually embedding with XML; programmatic
manipulation
– XLink and XPointer cognizant
– Namespace alias independence
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8. Querying and transforming
XML Query Specifications
 XML Query Requirements, 16 February 2001
 XML Query Use Cases , 8 June 2001
 XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Data Model (replaces XML
Query Data Model), 7 June 2001
 XQuery 1.0 Formal Semantics (replaces XML Query
Algebra), 7 June 2001
 XQuery 1.0: An XML Query Language, 7 June 2001
 XML Syntax for XQuery 1.0 (XQueryX), 7 June 2001
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8. Querying and transforming
 Use Case 1.1.9.10 Q10
• In the document “prices.xml”, find the minimum price for
each book, in the form of a “minprice” element with the book
title as its title attribute.
• Solution in XQuery:
<results>
{ LET $doc := document("prices.xml")
FOR $t IN distinct($doc/book/title)
LET $p := $doc/book[title = $t]/price
RETURN
<minprice title={ $t/text() }>
{ min($p) }
</minprice>
}
</results>
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8. Querying and transforming
XSLT
 XML Stylesheet Language Transformations
• For transforming XML documents, including
converting XML to XHTML, etc.
Example: For each employee, process the name and
each group in the employee’s department.
<xsl:template match="employee">
<fo:block>
Employee <xsl:apply-templates select="name"/> belongs to group
<xsl:apply-templates select="ancestor::department/group"/>
</fo:block>
</xsl:template>
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9. Applications
 Many, diverse XML applications
 Typically resulting from industry initiatives

 Examples:
• eCatalog XML (eCX): a DTD for catalogs,
developed to address the problem of exchanging
product information between different catalog
systems; version 2.0 published May 2000.
• Open Catalog Protocol and Format (OCP/OCF) a
software protocol to exchange complex data between
product catalogs and a DTD for a catalog.
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9. Applications
• BASDA eBIS-XML: for exchange of standard
business documents; enables the direct exchange of
purchase orders and invoices and other business
documents between different software packages, via
e-mail and the Internet, without the need for EDI
(Electronic Data Interchange) middleware
• ebXML: to enable a global electronic marketplace
“where enterprises of any size and in any
geographical location can meet and conduct business
with each other through the exchange of XML based
messages”
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9. Applications
• Electronic Commerce Modeling Language (ECML):
a set of hierarchical payment oriented structures “to
enable automated software, including electronic
wallets, from multiple vendors to supply needed data
in a more uniform manner”; ECML v2 DTD
published in Feb. 2001
• VISA XML Invoice Specification: a DTD for VISA
invoices, “intended to increase a corporation's ability
to automate B2B purchasing functions and monitor
travel and entertainment expenses worldwide”
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9. Applications

• CallXML: a phone markup language, used to

describe the user interface of a telephone, voice over
IP, or multi-media call application to a CallXML
browser so it can control and react to the call itself.
• Theological Markup Language (ThML)
• Chemical Markup Language (CML)
• Mathematical Markup Language (MathML)
• etc.
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9. Applications
• Human Markup Language (HumanML): “To
promote XML standards that will reduce human
misunderstanding in society... through the explicit
markup of various communication constructs
including thought, emotion, purpose, and motivation”

 Many more listed at

http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/xml.html#applications
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10. Challenges
 Knowledge of XML or a specific XML
application not sufficient for using XML
technology; usually expertise in other
members of the XML family also needed
 Continuous changes in specifications and in
software; many important specifications
still working drafts
 Parallel development of related /competing
specifications at W3C and industry sectors
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10. Challenges
 Requires effective collaboration among
business partners, either within a single
industry sector or among partners crossing
industry boundaries; good communication
skills needed
 Partners may need to use (and depend on)
XML specifications before W3C or
industry sector(s) has finalized them.
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Discussion