DTD - Overview

XML Document Type Declaration, commonly known as DTD, is a way to describe precisely the
XML language. DTDs check the validity of structure and vocabulary of an XML document against
the grammatical rules of the appropriate XML language.

An XML document can be defined as −

 Well-formed − If the XML document adheres to all the general XML rules such as tags must
be properly nested, opening and closing tags must be balanced, and empty tags must end with
'/>', then it is called as well-formed.
OR
 Valid − An XML document said to be valid when it is not only well-formed, but it also
conforms to available DTD that specifies which tags it uses, what attributes those tags can
contain, and which tags can occur inside other tags, among other properties.

The following diagram represents that a DTD is used to structure the XML document −

Types

DTD can be classified on its declaration basis in the XML document, such as −

 Internal DTD
 External DTD
When a DTD is declared within the file it is called Internal DTD and if it is declared in a separate file
it is called External DTD.
We will learn more about these in the chapter DTD Syntax

Features

Following are some important points that a DTD describes −

 the elements that can appear in an XML document.

 the order in which they can appear.
 optional and mandatory elements.
 element attributes and whether they are optional or mandatory.
 whether attributes can have default values.

Advantages of using DTD

 Documentation − You can define your own format for the XML files. Looking at this
document a user/developer can understand the structure of the data.
 Validation − It gives a way to check the validity of XML files by checking whether the
elements appear in the right order, mandatory elements and attributes are in place, the
elements and attributes have not been inserted in an incorrect way, and so on.

Disadvantages of using DTD

 It does not support the namespaces. Namespace is a mechanism by which element and
attribute names can be assigned to groups. However, in a DTD namespaces have to be defined
within the DTD, which violates the purpose of using namespaces.
 It supports only the text string data type.
 It is not object oriented. Hence, the concept of inheritance cannot be applied on the DTDs.
 Limited possibilities to express the cardinality for elements.

DTD - Syntax

An XML DTD can be either specified inside the document, or it can be kept in a separate document
and then the document can be linked to the DTD document to use it.

Syntax

Basic syntax of a DTD is as follows −

<!DOCTYPE element DTD identifier

[
declaration1
declaration2
........
]>

In the above syntax −

 DTD starts with <!DOCTYPE delimiter.

 An element tells the parser to parse the document from the specified root element.
 DTD identifier is an identifier for the document type definition, which may be the path to a
file on the system or URL to a file on the internet. If the DTD is pointing to external path, it is
called external subset.
 The square brackets [ ] enclose an optional list of entity declarations called internal subset.
Internal DTD
A DTD is referred to as an internal DTD if elements are declared within the XML files. To reference
it as internal DTD, standalone attribute in XML declaration must be set to yes. This means the
declaration works independent of external source.

Syntax

The syntax of internal DTD is as shown −

<!DOCTYPE root-element [element-declarations]>

where root-element is the name of root element and element-declarations is where you declare the
elements.

Example

Following is a simple example of internal DTD −

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8" standalone = "yes" ?>

<!DOCTYPE address [
<!ELEMENT address (name,company,phone)>
<!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT company (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT phone (#PCDATA)>
]>

<address>
<name>Tanmay Patil</name>
<company>TutorialsPoint</company>
<phone>(011) 123-4567</phone>
</address>

Let us go through the above code −

Start Declaration − Begin the XML declaration with following statement.

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8" standalone = "yes" ?>
DTD − Immediately after the XML header, the document type declaration follows, commonly
referred to as the DOCTYPE −
<!DOCTYPE address [

The DOCTYPE declaration has an exclamation mark (!) at the start of the element name. The
DOCTYPE informs the parser that a DTD is associated with this XML document.

DTD Body − The DOCTYPE declaration is followed by body of the DTD, where you declare
elements, attributes, entities, and notations −
<!ELEMENT address (name,company,phone)>
<!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT company (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT phone_no (#PCDATA)>
Several elements are declared here that make up the vocabulary of the <name> document. <!
ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)> defines the element name to be of type "#PCDATA". Here
#PCDATA means parse-able text data.
End Declaration − Finally, the declaration section of the DTD is closed using a closing bracket and a
closing angle bracket (]>). This effectively ends the definition, and thereafter, the XML document
follows immediately.

Rules
 The document type declaration must appear at the start of the document (preceded only by the
XML header) - it is not permitted anywhere else within the document.
 Similar to the DOCTYPE declaration, the element declarations must start with an exclamation
mark.
 The Name in the document type declaration must match the element type of the root element.

External DTD
In external DTD elements are declared outside the XML file. They are accessed by specifying the
system attributes which may be either the legal .dtd file or a valid URL. To reference it as external
DTD, standalone attribute in the XML declaration must be set as no. This means, declaration includes
information from the external source.

Syntax

Following is the syntax for external DTD −

<!DOCTYPE root-element SYSTEM "file-name">

where file-name is the file with .dtd extension.

Example

The following example shows external DTD usage −

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8" standalone = "no" ?>

<!DOCTYPE address SYSTEM "address.dtd">

<address>
<name>Tanmay Patil</name>
<company>TutorialsPoint</company>
<phone>(011) 123-4567</phone>
</address>
The content of the DTD file address.dtd are as shown −
<!ELEMENT address (name,company,phone)>
<!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT company (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT phone (#PCDATA)>

Types
You can refer to an external DTD by either using system identifiers or public identifiers.
System Identifiers

A system identifier enables you to specify the location of an external file containing DTD
declarations. Syntax is as follows −

<!DOCTYPE name SYSTEM "address.dtd" [...]>

As you can see it contains keyword SYSTEM and a URI reference pointing to the location of the
document.
DTD - Components

A DTD will basically contain declarations of the following XML components −

 Element
 Attributes
 Entities

Elements

XML elements can be defined as building blocks of an XML document. Elements can behave as a
container to hold text, elements, attributes, media objects or mix of all.

Each XML document contains one or more elements, the boundaries of which are either delimited by
start-tags and end-tags, or empty elements.

Example

Below is a simple example of XML elements

<name>
Tutorials Point
</name>
As you can see we have defined a <name> tag. There's a text between start and end tag of <name>.
Elements, when used in an XML-DTD, need to be declared which will be discussed in detail in the
chapter DTD Elements.

Attributes
Attributes are part of the XML elements. An element can have any number of unique attributes.
Attributes give more information about the XML element or more precisely it defines a property of
the element. An XML attribute is always a name-value pair.

Example

Below is a simple example of XML attributes −

<img src = "flower.jpg"/>

Here img is the element name whereas src is an attribute name and flower.jpg is a value given for the
attribute src.
If attributes are used in an XML DTD then these need to be declared which will be discussed in detail
in the chapter DTD Attributes

Entities

Entities are placeholders in XML. These can be declared in the document prolog or in a DTD. Entities
can be primarily categorized as −

 Built-in entities
 Character entities
 General entities
 Parameter entities

There are five built-in entities that play in well-formed XML, they are −
  ampersand: &amp;
 Single quote: &apos;
 Greater than: &gt;
 Less than: &lt;
 Double quote: &quot;
DTD - Elements

XML elements can be defined as building blocks of an XML document. Elements can behave as a
container to hold text, elements, attributes, media objects or mix of all.

A DTD element is declared with an ELEMENT declaration. When an XML file is validated by DTD,
parser initially checks for the root element and then the child elements are validated.

Syntax

All DTD element declarations have this general form −

<!ELEMENT elementname (content)>

 ELEMENT declaration is used to indicate the parser that you are about to define an element.
 elementname is the element name (also called the generic identifier) that you are defining.
 content defines what content (if any) can go within the element.

Element Content Types

Content of elements declaration in a DTD can be categorized as below −

 Empty content
 Element content
 Mixed content
 Any content

Empty Content
This is a special case of element declaration. This element declaration does not contain any content.
These are declared with the keyword EMPTY.
Syntax

Following is the syntax for empty element declaration −

<!ELEMENT elementname EMPTY >

In the above syntax −

 ELEMENT is the element declaration of category EMPTY

 elementname is the name of empty element.
Example

Following is a simple example demonstrating empty element declaration −

<?xml version = "1.0"?>

<!DOCTYPE hr[
 <!ELEMENT address EMPTY>
]>
<address />
In this example address is declared as an empty element. The markup for address element would
appear as <address />.

Element Content

In element declaration with element content, the content would be allowable elements within
parentheses. We can also include more than one element.

Syntax

Following is a syntax of element declaration with element content −

<!ELEMENT elementname (child1, child2...)>

 ELEMENT is the element declaration tag
 elementname is the name of the element.
 child1, child2.. are the elements and each element must have its own definition within the
DTD.
Example

Below example demonstrates a simple example for element declaration with element content −

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8" standalone = "yes" ?>

<!DOCTYPE address [
<!ELEMENT address (name,company,phone)>
<!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT company (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT phone (#PCDATA)>
]>

<address>
<name>Tanmay Patil</name>
<company>TutorialsPoint</company>
<phone>(011) 123-4567</phone>
</address>
In the above example, address is the parent element and name, company and phone_no are its child
elements.

List of Operators and Syntax Rules

Below table shows the list of operators and syntax rules which can be applied in defining child
elements −

Operato
Syntax Description Example
r

+ <!ELEMENT It indicates that child <!ELEMENT address (name+)>

element-name element can occur Child element name can occur
 one or more times
(child1+)> inside parent one or more times inside the
element. element name address.

It indicates that child

<!ELEMENT element can occur <!ELEMENT address (name*)>
* element-name zero or more times Child element name can occur
(child1*)> inside parent zero or more times inside the
element. element name address.

It indicates that child

<!ELEMENT element can occur <!ELEMENT address (name?)>
? element-name zero or one time Child element name can occur
(child1?)> inside parent zero or one time inside the
element. element name address.

It gives sequence of
child elements <!ELEMENT address (name,
<!ELEMENT company)>
separated by comma
, element-name Sequence of child
which must be elements name, company, which
(child1, child2)>
included in the the must occur in the same order
element-name. inside the element name address.

<!ELEMENT address (name |

<!ELEMENT It allows making company)>
It allows you to choose either of
| element-name choices in the child
child elements
(child1 | child2)> element. i.e. name or company, which
must occur in inside the element
name address.

Rules

We need to follow certain rules if there is more than one element content −

Sequences − Often the elements within DTD documents must appear in a distinct order. If
this is the case, you define the content using a sequence.
The declaration indicates that the <address> element must have exactly three children -
<name>, <company>, and <phone> - and that they must appear in this order. For example −
<!ELEMENT address (name,company,phone)>
 Choices − Suppose you need to allow one element or another, but not both. In such cases you
must use the pipe (|) character. The pipe functions as an exclusive OR. For example −
<!ELEMENT address (mobile | landline)>
Mixed Element Content

This is the combination of (#PCDATA) and children elements. PCDATA stands for parsed character
data, that is, text that is not markup. Within mixed content models, text can appear by itself or it can
be interspersed between elements. The rules for mixed content models are similar to the element
content as discussed in the previous section.

Syntax

Following is a generic syntax for mixed element content −

<!ELEMENT elementname (#PCDATA|child1|child2)*>

 ELEMENT is the element declaration tag.
 elementname is the name of the element.
 PCDATA is the text that is not markup. #PCDATA must come first in the mixed content
declaration.
 child1, child2.. are the elements and each element must have its own definition within the
DTD.
 The operator (*) must follow the mixed content declaration if children elements are included
 The (#PCDATA) and children element declarations must be separated by the (|) operator.
Example

Following is a simple example demonstrating the mixed content element declaration in a DTD.

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8" standalone = "yes" ?>

<!DOCTYPE address [
<!ELEMENT address (#PCDATA|name)*>
<!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)>
]>

<address>
Here's a bit of text mixed up with the child element.
<name>
Tanmay Patil
</name>
</address>

ANY Element Content

You can declare an element using the ANY keyword in the content. It is most often referred to as
mixed category element. ANY is useful when you have yet to decide the allowable contents of the
element.

Syntax

Following is the syntax for declaring elements with ANY content −

<!ELEMENT elementname ANY>

Here, the ANY keyword indicates that text (PCDATA) and/or any elements declared within the DTD
can be used within the content of the <elementname> element. They can be used in any order any
number of times. However, the ANY keyword does not allow you to include elements that are not
declared within the DTD.

Example

Following is a simple example demonstrating the element declaration with ANY content −

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8" standalone = "yes" ?>

<!DOCTYPE address [
<!ELEMENT address ANY>
]>

<address>
Here's a bit of sample text
</address>
DTD - Attributes

In this chapter we will discuss about DTD Attributes. Attribute gives more information about an
element or more precisely it defines a property of an element. An XML attribute is always in the form
of a name-value pair. An element can have any number of unique attributes.

Attribute declaration is very much similar to element declarations in many ways except one; instead
of declaring allowable content for elements, you declare a list of allowable attributes for each element.
These lists are called ATTLIST declaration.

Syntax

Basic syntax of DTD attributes declaration is as follows −

<!ATTLIST element-name attribute-name attribute-type attribute-value>

In the above syntax −

 The DTD attributes start with <!ATTLIST keyword if the element contains the attribute.
 element-name specifies the name of the element to which the attribute applies.
 attribute-name specifies the name of the attribute which is included with the element-name.
 attribute-type defines the type of attributes. We will discuss more on this in the following
sections.
 attribute-value takes a fixed value that the attributes must define. We will discuss more on
this in the following sections.

Example

Below is a simple example for attribute declaration in DTD −

<?xml version = "1.0"?>

<!DOCTYPE address [
<!ELEMENT address ( name )>
<!ELEMENT name ( #PCDATA )>
 <!ATTLIST name id CDATA #REQUIRED>
]>

<address>
<name id = "123">Tanmay Patil</name>
</address>

Let us go through the above code −

 Begin with the XML declaration with the following statement −

<?xml version = "1.0"?>
 Immediately following the XML header is the document type declaration, commonly referred
to as the DOCTYPE as shown below −
The DOCTYPE informs the parser that a DTD is associated with this XML document. The
DOCTYPE declaration has an exclamation mark (!) at the start of the element name.
<!DOCTYPE address [
 Following is the body of DTD. Here we have declared element and attribute −
<!ELEMENT address ( name )>
<!ELEMENT name ( #PCDATA )>
 Attribute id for the element name is defined as given below −
Here attribute type is CDATA and its value is #REQUIRED.
<!ATTLIST name id CDATA #REQUIRED>

Rules of Attribute Declaration

 All attributes used in an XML document must be declared in the Document Type Definition
(DTD) using an Attribute-List Declaration
 Attributes may only appear in start or empty tags.
 The keyword ATTLIST must be in upper case
 No duplicate attribute names will be allowed within the attribute list for a given element.

Attribute Types

When declaring attributes, you can specify how the processor should handle the data that appears in
the value. We can categorize attribute types in three main categories −

 String type
 Tokenized types
 Enumerated types

Following table provides a summary of the different attribute types −

Sr.No
Type & Description
.

1 CDATA
CDATA is character data (text and not markup). It is a String Attribute Type.

ID
2
It is a unique identifier of the attribute. It should not appear more than once. It is
a Tokenized Attribute Type.
 IDREF
3
It is used to reference an ID of another element. It is used to establish connections
between elements. It is a Tokenized Attribute Type.

4 IDREFS
It is used to reference multiple ID's. It is a Tokenized Attribute Type.

5 ENTITY
It represents an external entity in the document. It is a Tokenized Attribute Type.

ENTITIES
6
It represents a list of external entities in the document. It is a Tokenized Attribute
Type.

NMTOKEN
7
It is similar to CDATA and the attribute value consists of a valid XML name. It is
a Tokenized Attribute Type.

NMTOKENS
8
It is similar to CDATA and the attribute value consists a list of valid XML name. It is
a Tokenized Attribute Type.

NOTATION
9
An element will be referenced to a notation declared in the DTD document. It is
an Enumerated Attribute Type.

Enumeration
10
It allows defining a specific list of values where one of the values must match. It is
an Enumerated Attribute Type.

Attribute Value Declaration

Within each attribute declaration, you must specify how the value will appear in the document. You
can specify if an attribute −

 can have a default value

 can have a fixed value
 is required
 is implied

Default Values

It contains the default value. The values can be enclosed in single quotes(') or double quotes(").

Syntax

Following is the syntax of value −

<!ATTLIST element-name attribute-name attribute-type "default-value">

where default-value is the attribute value defined.
Example

Following is a simple example of attribute declaration with default value −

<?xml version = "1.0"?>

<!DOCTYPE address [
<!ELEMENT address ( name )>
<!ELEMENT name ( #PCDATA )>
<!ATTLIST name id CDATA "0">
]>

<address>
<name id = "123">
Tanmay Patil
</name>
</address>
In this example we have name element with attribute id whose default value is 0. The default value is
been enclosed within the double quotes.

FIXED Values

#FIXED keyword followed by the fixed value is used when you want to specify that the attribute
value is constant and cannot be changed. A common use of fixed attributes is specifying version
numbers.

Syntax

Following is the syntax of fixed values −

<!ATTLIST element-name attribute-name attribute-type #FIXED "value" >

where #FIXED is an attribute value defined.

Example

Following is a simple example of attribute declaration with FIXED value −

<?xml version = "1.0"?>

<!DOCTYPE address [
<!ELEMENT address (company)*>
<!ELEMENT company (#PCDATA)>
<!ATTLIST company name NMTOKEN #FIXED "tutorialspoint">
]>

<address>
<company name = "tutorialspoint">we are a free online teaching faculty</company>
</address>
In this example we have used the keyword #FIXED where it indicates that the value "tutorialspoint" is
the only value for the attribute name of element <company>. If we try to change the attribute value
then it gives an error.

Following is an invalid DTD −

<?xml version = "1.0"?>

<!DOCTYPE address [
<!ELEMENT address (company)*>
<!ELEMENT company (#PCDATA)>
<!ATTLIST company name NMTOKEN #FIXED "tutorialspoint">
]>

<address>
<company name = "abc">we are a free online teaching faculty</company>
</address>

REQUIRED values

Whenever you want specify that an attribute is required, use #REQUIRED keyword.

Syntax

Following is the syntax of #REQUIRED −

<!ATTLIST element-name attribute-name attribute-type #REQUIRED>

where #REQUIRED is an attribute type defined.

Example

Following is a simple example of DTD attribute declaration with #REQUIRED keyword −

<?xml version = "1.0"?>

<!DOCTYPE address [
<!ELEMENT address ( name )>
<!ELEMENT name ( #PCDATA )>
<!ATTLIST name id CDATA #REQUIRED>
]>

<address>
<name id = "123">
Tanmay Patil
</name>
</address>
In this example we have used #REQUIRED keyword to specify that the attribute id must be provided
for the element-name name

IMPLIED Values
When declaring attributes you must always specify a value declaration. If the attribute you are
declaring has no default value, has no fixed value, and is not required, then you must declare that the
attribute as implied. Keyword #IMPLIED is used to specify an attribute as implied.
Syntax

Following is the syntax of #IMPLIED −

<!ATTLIST element-name attribute-name attribute-type #IMPLIED>

where #IMPLIED is an attribute type defined.

Example

Following is a simple example of #IMPLIED

<?xml version = "1.0"?>

<!DOCTYPE address [
<!ELEMENT address ( name )>
<!ELEMENT name ( #PCDATA )>
<!ATTLIST name id CDATA #IMPLIED>
]>

<address>
<name />
</address>
DTD - Entities

Entities are used to define shortcuts to special characters within the XML documents. Entities can be
primarily of four types −

 Built-in entities
 Character entities
 General entities
 Parameter entities

Entity Declaration Syntax

In general, entities can be declared internally or externally. Let us understand each of these and their
syntax as follows −

Internal Entity

If an entity is declared within a DTD it is called as internal entity.

Syntax

Following is the syntax for internal entity declaration −

<!ENTITY entity_name "entity_value">

In the above syntax −

 entity_name is the name of entity followed by its value within the double quotes or single
quote.
 entity_value holds the value for the entity name.
 The entity value of the Internal Entity is de-referenced by adding prefix & to the entity
name i.e. &entity_name.
Example

Following is a simple example for internal entity declaration −

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8" standalone = "yes"?>

<!DOCTYPE address [
<!ELEMENT address (#PCDATA)>
<!ENTITY name "Tanmay patil">
<!ENTITY company "TutorialsPoint">
<!ENTITY phone_no "(011) 123-4567">
]>

<address>
&name;
&company;
&phone_no;
</address>
In the above example, the respective entity names name, company and phone_no are replaced by their
values in the XML document. The entity values are de-referenced by adding prefix & to the entity
name.
Save this file as sample.xml and open it in any browser, you will notice that the entity values
for name, company, phone_no are replaced respectively.

External Entity

If an entity is declared outside a DTD it is called as external entity. You can refer to an external Entity
by either using system identifiers or public identifiers.

Syntax

Following is the syntax for External Entity declaration −

<!ENTITY name SYSTEM "URI/URL">

In the above syntax −

 name is the name of entity.

 SYSTEM is the keyword.
 URI/URL is the address of the external source enclosed within the double or single quotes.
Types

You can refer to an external DTD by either using −

 System Identifiers − A system identifier enables you to specify the location of an external
file containing DTD declarations.
As you can see it contains keyword SYSTEM and a URI reference pointing to the document's
location. Syntax is as follows −
<!DOCTYPE name SYSTEM "address.dtd" [...]>
 Public Identifiers − Public identifiers provide a mechanism to locate DTD resources and are
written as below −
As you can see, it begins with keyword PUBLIC, followed by a specialized identifier. Public
identifiers are used to identify an entry in a catalog. Public identifiers can follow any format;
however, a commonly used format is called Formal Public Identifiers, or FPIs.
<!DOCTYPE name PUBLIC "-//Beginning XML//DTD Address Example//EN">
Example
Let us understand the external entity with the following example −

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8" standalone = "yes"?>

<!DOCTYPE address SYSTEM "address.dtd">

<address>
<name>
Tanmay Patil
</name>

<company>
TutorialsPoint
</company>

<phone>
(011) 123-4567
</phone>
</address>
Below is the content of the DTD file address.dtd −
<!ELEMENT address (name, company, phone)>
<!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT company (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT phone (#PCDATA)>

Built-in entities

All XML parsers must support built-in entities. In general, you can use these entity references
anywhere. You can also use normal text within the XML document, such as in element contents and
attribute values.

There are five built-in entities that play their role in well-formed XML, they are −

 ampersand: &amp;
 Single quote: &apos;
 Greater than: &gt;
 Less than: &lt;
 Double quote: &quot;

Example

Following example demonstrates the built-in entity declaration −

<?xml version = "1.0"?>

<note>
<description>I'm a technical writer & programmer</description>
<note>

As you can see here the &amp; character is replaced by & whenever the processor encounters this.
Character entities

Character Entities are used to name some of the entities which are symbolic representation of
information i.e characters that are difficult or impossible to type can be substituted by Character
Entities.

Example

Following example demonstrates the character entity declaration −

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8" standalone = "yes"?>

<!DOCTYPE author[
<!ELEMENT author (#PCDATA)>
<!ENTITY writer "Tanmay patil">
<!ENTITY copyright "&#169;">
]>
<author>&writer;&copyright;</author>

General entities

General entities must be declared within the DTD before they can be used within an XML document.
Instead of representing only a single character, general entities can represent characters, paragraphs,
and even entire documents.

Syntax

To declare a general entity, use a declaration of this general form in your DTD −

<!ENTITY ename "text">

Example

Following example demonstrates the general entity declaration −

<?xml version = "1.0"?>

<!DOCTYPE note [
<!ENTITY source-text "tutorialspoint">
]>

<note>
&source-text;
</note>
Whenever an XML parser encounters a reference to source-text entity, it will supply the replacement
text to the application at the point of the reference.

Parameter entities

The purpose of a parameter entity is to enable you to create reusable sections of replacement text.
Syntax

Following is the syntax for parameter entity declaration −

<!ENTITY % ename "entity_value">

 entity_value is any character that is not an '&', '%' or ' " '.

Example

Following example demonstrates the parameter entity declaration. Suppose you have element
declarations as below −

<!ELEMENT residence (name, street, pincode, city, phone)>

<!ELEMENT apartment (name, street, pincode, city, phone)>
<!ELEMENT office (name, street, pincode, city, phone)>
<!ELEMENT shop (name, street, pincode, city, phone)>
Now suppose you want to add additional eleement country, then then you need to add it to all four
declarations. Hence we can go for a parameter entity reference. Now using parameter entity reference
the above example will be −
<!ENTITY % area "name, street, pincode, city">
<!ENTITY % contact "phone">

Parameter entities are dereferenced in the same way as a general entity reference, only with a percent
sign instead of an ampersand −

<!ELEMENT residence (%area;, %contact;)>

<!ELEMENT apartment (%area;, %contact;)>
<!ELEMENT office (%area;, %contact;)>
<!ELEMENT shop (%area;, %contact;)>

XSL
Before learning XSLT, we should first understand XSL which stands for
EXtensible Stylesheet Language. It is similar to XML as CSS is to HTML.

Need for XSL

In case of HTML document, tags are predefined such as table, div, and span; and the browser knows
how to add style to them and display those using CSS styles. But in case of XML documents, tags are
not predefined. In order to understand and style an XML document, World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C) developed XSL which can act as XML based Stylesheet Language. An XSL document
specifies how a browser should render an XML document.

Following are the main parts of XSL −

 XSLT − used to transform XML document into various other types of document.
 XPath − used to navigate XML document.
 XSL-FO − used to format XML document.
What is XSLT

XSLT, Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations, provides the ability to transform XML data
from one format to another automatically.

How XSLT Works

An XSLT stylesheet is used to define the transformation rules to be applied on the target XML
document. XSLT stylesheet is written in XML format. XSLT Processor takes the XSLT stylesheet
and applies the transformation rules on the target XML document and then it generates a formatted
document in the form of XML, HTML, or text format. This formatted document is then utilized by
XSLT formatter to generate the actual output which is to be displayed to the end-user.

Advantages

Here are the advantages of using XSLT −

 Independent of programming. Transformations are written in a separate xsl file which is again
an XML document.
 Output can be altered by simply modifying the transformations in xsl file. No need to change
any code. So Web designers can edit the stylesheet and can see the change in the output
quickly.
XLink is used to create hyperlinks in XML documents.
XLink Browser Support

There is no browser support for XLink in XML documents.

However, all major browsers support XLinks in SVG.

XLink Syntax

In HTML, the <a> element defines a hyperlink. However, this is not how it works in XML. In XML
documents, you can use whatever element names you want - therefore it is impossible for browsers to
predict what link elements will be called in XML documents.

Below is a simple example of how to use XLink to create links in an XML document:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<homepages xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">
<homepage xlink:type="simple" xlink:href="https://www.w3schools.com">Visit
W3Schools</homepage>
<homepage xlink:type="simple" xlink:href="http://www.w3.org">Visit W3C</homepage>
</homepages>

To get access to the XLink features we must declare the XLink namespace. The XLink namespace is:
"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink".The xlink:type and the xlink:href attributes in the <homepage>
elements come from the XLink namespace.

The xlink:type="simple" creates a simple "HTML-like" link (means "click here to go there").

The xlink:href attribute specifies the URL to link to.

XLink Example

The following XML document contains XLink features:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<bookstore xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">

<book title="Harry Potter">

 <description
xlink:type="simple"
xlink:href="/images/HPotter.gif"
xlink:show="new">
As his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and
Wizardry approaches, 15-year-old Harry Potter is.......
</description>
</book>

<book title="XQuery Kick Start">

<description
xlink:type="simple"
xlink:href="/images/XQuery.gif"
xlink:show="new">
XQuery Kick Start delivers a concise introduction
to the XQuery standard.......
</description>
</book>

</bookstore>

Example explained:

 The XLink namespace is declared at the top of the document

(xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink")
 The xlink:type="simple" creates a simple "HTML-like" link
 The xlink:href attribute specifies the URL to link to (in this case - an image)
 The xlink:show="new" specifies that the link should open in a new window

XLink Attribute Reference

Attribute Value Description

xlink:actuate onLoad Defines when the linked resource is read and shown:
onRequest
other  onLoad - the resource should be loaded and shown when the
none document loads
 onRequest - the resource is not read or shown before the link is
clicked

xlink:href URL Specifies the URL to link to

xlink:show embed Specifies where to open the link. Default is "replace"

new
 replace
other
none

xlink:type simple Specifies the type of link

extended
locator
arc
resource
title
none

XPointer

 XPointer allows links to point to specific parts of an XML document

 XPointer uses XPath expressions to navigate in the XML document
 XPointer is a W3C Recommendation

XPointer Browser Support

There is no browser support for XPointer. But XPointer is used in other XML languages.

XPointer Example

In this example, we will use XPointer in conjunction with XLink to point to a specific part of
another document.

We will start by looking at the target XML document (the document we are linking to):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<dogbreeds>
<dog breed="Rottweiler" id="Rottweiler">
<picture url="https://dog.com/rottweiler.gif" />
<history>The Rottweiler's ancestors were probably Roman
drover dogs.....</history>
<temperament>Confident, bold, alert and imposing, the Rottweiler
 is a popular choice for its ability to protect....</temperament>
</dog>
<dog breed="FCRetriever" id="FCRetriever">
<picture url="https://dog.com/fcretriever.gif" />
<history>One of the earliest uses of retrieving dogs was to
help fishermen retrieve fish from the water....</history>
<temperament>The flat-coated retriever is a sweet, exuberant,
lively dog that loves to play and retrieve....</temperament>
</dog>
</dogbreeds>

So, instead of linking to the entire document (as with XLink), XPointer allows you to link to specific
parts of the document. To link to a specific part of a page, add a number sign (#) and an XPointer
expression after the URL in the xlink:href attribute, like this:
xlink:href="https://dog.com/dogbreeds.xml#xpointer(id('Rottweiler'))". The expression refers to the
element in the target document, with the id value of "Rottweiler".

XPointer also allows a shorthand method for linking to an element with an id. You can use the value
of the id directly, like this: xlink:href="https://dog.com/dogbreeds.xml#Rottweiler".

The following XML document contains links to more information of the dog breed for each of my
dogs:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<mydogs xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">
<mydog>
<description>
Anton is my favorite dog. He has won a lot of.....
</description>
<fact xlink:type="simple" xlink:href="https://dog.com/dogbreeds.xml#Rottweiler">
Fact about Rottweiler
</fact>
</mydog>
<mydog>
<description>
Pluto is the sweetest dog on earth......
</description>
<fact xlink:type="simple" xlink:href="https://dog.com/dogbreeds.xml#FCRetriever">
Fact about flat-coated Retriever
</fact>
</mydog>
</mydogs>