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Cse2045Y Web Application Development: XML (Extensible Markup Language)

This document provides an overview of XML (eXtensible Markup Language). It discusses what XML is, how it differs from HTML, reasons for using XML, XML syntax rules, elements, attributes, comments and empty elements. The key points covered are that XML is a markup language for describing and storing data, it is more flexible than HTML as tags are user-defined, and XML documents form a tree structure with elements, attributes, and hierarchical relationships between parent and child nodes.

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71 views18 pages

Cse2045Y Web Application Development: XML (Extensible Markup Language)

This document provides an overview of XML (eXtensible Markup Language). It discusses what XML is, how it differs from HTML, reasons for using XML, XML syntax rules, elements, attributes, comments and empty elements. The key points covered are that XML is a markup language for describing and storing data, it is more flexible than HTML as tags are user-defined, and XML documents form a tree structure with elements, attributes, and hierarchical relationships between parent and child nodes.

Uploaded by

splokbov
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
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You are on page 1/ 18

CSE2045Y

Web Application Development

Lecture 3
XML (eXtensible Markup Language)

Agenda
• What is XML?
• HTML v/s XML
• Reasons to use XML
• How does XML work?
• XML Tree Structure
– XML Elements
– XML Attributes
• XML Rules
• XML Errors
2
What is XML?
• XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language.

• XML is a markup language much like HTML.

• XML was designed to store and transport data.

• XML was designed to be self-descriptive.

• XML is a W3C Recommendation.

HTML v/s XML (1)


• XML and HTML were designed with different
goals:
– XML was designed to carry data - with focus on
what data is.
– HTML was designed to display data - with focus on
how data looks.
– XML tags are not predefined like HTML tags are.

4
HTML v/s XML (2)

Technology HTML XML


Use Display data Describe, store
and transfer data
Data formatting CSS XSL
Constraints/Rules None XSD
Linking to other <a href= > XPath
documents

Reasons to use XML


1. Self-Describing data
– User-defined tags (eXtensible)
– E.g. <name>Armadillo</name>

2. Interchange of data among applications


– Non-proprietary, portable, use any tool that
understands xml

3. Structured Data
– Specify the relations between elements
– E.g. Name must consist of First, Middle and Last
name.
6
XML Example 1
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<note>

<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>

</note>

XML Example 2
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<breakfast>
<food>
<name>Belgian Waffles</name>
<price>$5.95</price>
<description>
Two of our famous Belgian Waffles with plenty of real maple syrup
</description>
<calories>650</calories>
</food>
<food>
<name>Strawberry Belgian Waffles</name>
<price>$7.95</price>
<description>
Light Belgian waffles covered with strawberries and whipped cream
</description>
<calories>900</calories>
</food>
</breakfast> 8
How Can XML be used?
• XML separates Data from Presentation
– XML does not carry any information about how to be
displayed.
– The same XML data can be used in many different
presentation scenarios.

• XML is often a Complement to HTML


– In many HTML applications, XML is used to store or
transport data, while HTML is used to format and display
the same data.

• XML separates Data from HTML


– With a few lines of JavaScript code, you can read an XML
file and update the data content of any HTML page.
9

XML Tree Structure


• XML documents form a tree structure that
starts at "the root" and branches to "the
leaves".

10
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<bookstore>
<book category="cooking">
<title lang="en">Everyday Italian</title>
<author>Giada De Laurentiis</author>
<year>2005</year>
<price>30.00</price>
</book>
<book category="children">
<title lang="en">Harry Potter</title>
<author>J K. Rowling</author>
<year>2005</year>
<price>29.99</price>
</book>
<book category="web">
<title lang="en">Learning XML</title>
<author>Erik T. Ray</author>
<year>2003</year>
<price>39.95</price>
</book>
</bookstore>
11

Viewing the XML data


• The XML data
can be displayed
in a browser
window.

12
XML Errors
• If the XML is not well-formed, the error will be
hignlighted.

13

XML Tree Elements (1)


• XML documents are formed as element trees.
• An XML tree starts at a root element and
branches from the root to child elements.
• All elements can have sub elements (child
elements):

14
XML Tree Elements (2)
• The terms parent, child, and sibling are used to
describe the relationships between elements.

• Parent have children. Children have parents.


Siblings are children on the same level (brothers
and sisters).

• All elements can have text content (Harry Potter)


and attributes (category="cooking").

15

Self-Describing Syntax (1)


• A prolog defines the XML version and the
character encoding.
– The XML prolog is optional. If it exists, it must come
first in the document.

• The next line is the root element of the


document.

• The next line starts a <book> Element.

16
Self-Describing Syntax (2)
• The <book> elements have 4 child elements:
<title>, <author>, <year>, <price>.

• The last line ends the book element.

17

XML Entity References (1)


• Some characters have a special meaning in
XML.
• If you place a character like "<" inside an XML
element, it will generate an error because the
parser interprets it as the start of a new
element.
• To avoid this error, replace the "<" character
with an entity reference:

18
XML Entity References (2)
• There are 5 pre-defined entity references in
XML:

19

Activity 1
• Given the following XML Tree diagram, write
the XML.

https://www.tutorialspoint.com/xml/images/tree_structure.jpg 20
XML - is that it?
• Well that was fairly easy, most probably easier
than HTML since I do not have to remember tags
like <h1>, <br/>, <div> and so on

• Question
– How do we validate whether the XML is correct?

• XML should be well-formed


– XML should therefore follow certain rules:
• Syntax rules
• Naming rules
21

XML Syntax rules (1)

https://www.tutorialspoint.com/xml/images/syntaxrules.png
22
XML Syntax Rules (2)
• XML Documents Must Have a Root Element.
• All XML Elements Must Have a Closing Tag.
• XML Tags are Case Sensitive.
• XML Elements Must be Properly Nested.
• XML Attribute Values Must be Quoted.

23

XML Naming Rules


• Element names are case-sensitive.
• Element names must start with a letter or
underscore.
• Element names cannot start with the letters
xml (or XML, or Xml, etc).
• Element names can contain letters, digits,
hyphens, underscores, and periods.
• Element names cannot contain spaces.
24
XML Elements
• An XML element is everything from (including)
the element's start tag to (including) the
element's end tag.

• An element can contain:


– text
– attributes
– other elements
– or a mix of the above

25

XML Elements Examples


• <bookstore> is the root element.
• <title>, <author>, <year>, and <price> have
text content.
• <bookstore> and <book> have element
contents

26
Activity 2
• Which of these XML elements are invalid? State
why?

<123>

<author>John Smith </Author>

<xml-tag>

<my tag>
27

XML Attributes
• Attributes are name/value pairs associated with
an Element.
• Value must be in quotes (either single or double
quotes).
– We can use single on some attributes and double on
others, but you can't mix them in a single attribute.
• No element can contain two attributes with the
same name.
• XML elements can have more then one
attributes.
28
XML Attributes Examples
<book category="cooking">
<male gender="male">
<male gender='male'>

• <male gender='male"> wrong statement


(mismatching delimiters).

29

Activity 3
• Which of these XML attributes are invalid? State why?

<input checked>

<input checked='true">

<test myAttr='some data goes here >some other


data</test>

<name first="John" middle="Fitzgerald Johansen"


last="Doe"></name>

30
XML Comments
• Comments start with the string <!--
• and end with the string -->

• Example:

<name nickname= Shiny John >


<first>John</first>
<!--John has no middle name -->
<middle></middle>
<last>Doe</last>
</name>

31

XML Empty Element


• <middle></middle> can be represented as
<middle/>.

• This is the one case where a start-tag doesn t


need a separate end-tag, because they are
combined into this one tag.

• In all other cases, you must have both tags.


32
Activity 4
• Rewrite the following XML fragment using
attributes only, thus making it an empty element.

<name>
<first>John</first>
<middle>Fitzgerald Johansen</middle>
<last>Doe</last>
</name>

33

XML Errors
• An error is simply a violation of the rules in the
recommendation, where the results are
undefined; the XML processor is allowed to
recover from the error and continue processing.

• 5 Common XML Errors:


1. Forgetten Declaration Statement
2. Unnested Elements or Text
3. Open/Close Tags mismatch
4. No Root Element
5. Multiple White-Space Characters

34
XML Validation (Next Week)
• The minimal requirement for an XML document is
well-formedness !

• Even if a document is well-formed, however, it


may not be valid.

• A well-formed XML document may be valid if it


meets certain further constraints (validate against
a XML schema (XSD))

• Validation will be covered in the XSD lecture.


35

References
• https://www.w3schools.com/xml
• https://www.tutorialspoint.com/xml/xml_tree
_structure.htm
• http://www.w3webtutorial.com/xml/xml-
attribute.php

36

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