Scribd
Upload
23 views6 pages

Document Type Definition

Uploaded by

yatakonakiran2
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
23 views6 pages

Document Type Definition

Uploaded by

yatakonakiran2
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 6

Document Type Definition (DTD) defines the legal building blocks of an XML

document. It defines the document structure with a list of legal elements and
attributes.

A DTD can be declared inline inside an XML document, or as an external reference.

Internal DTD Declaration


If the DTD is declared inside the XML file, it should be wrapped in a DOCTYPE definition with the
following syntax:

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

Example XML document with an internal DTD:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE note [
<!ELEMENT note (to,from,heading,body)>
<!ELEMENT to (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT from (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT heading (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT body (#PCDATA)>
]>
<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend</body>
</note>

Open the XML file above in your browser (select "view source" or "view page source" to view the DTD)

The DTD above is interpreted like this:

 !DOCTYPE note defines that the root element of this document is note
 !ELEMENT note defines that the note element contains four elements:
"to,from,heading,body"

 !ELEMENT to defines the to element to be of type "#PCDATA"

 !ELEMENT from defines the from element to be of type "#PCDATA"

 !ELEMENT heading defines the heading element to be of type "#PCDATA"

 !ELEMENT body defines the body element to be of type "#PCDATA"

External DTD Declaration


If the DTD is declared in an external file, it should be wrapped in a DOCTYPE definition with the
following syntax:

<!DOCTYPE root-element SYSTEM "filename">

This is the same XML document as above, but with an external DTD (Open it, and select view source):

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE note SYSTEM "note.dtd">
<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>

And this is the file "note.dtd" which contains the DTD:

<!ELEMENT note (to,from,heading,body)>


<!ELEMENT to (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT from (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT heading (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT body (#PCDATA)>

Why Use a DTD?


With a DTD, each of your XML files can carry a description of its own format.

With a DTD, independent groups of people can agree to use a standard DTD for interchanging data.

Your application can use a standard DTD to verify that the data you receive from the outside world is
valid.

You can also use a DTD to verify your own data.

The Building Blocks of XML Documents


Seen from a DTD point of view, all XML documents (and HTML documents) are made up by the
following building blocks:

 Elements
 Attributes

 Entities

 PCDATA

 CDATA

Elements
Elements are the main building blocks of both XML and HTML documents.

Examples of HTML elements are "body" and "table". Examples of XML elements could be "note" and
"message". Elements can contain text, other elements, or be empty. Examples of empty HTML
elements are "hr", "br" and "img".

Examples:

<body>some text</body>

<message>some text</message>

Attributes
Attributes provide extra information about elements.

Attributes are always placed inside the opening tag of an element. Attributes always come in
name/value pairs. The following "img" element has additional information about a source file:

<img src="computer.gif" />

The name of the element is "img". The name of the attribute is "src". The value of the attribute is
"computer.gif". Since the element itself is empty it is closed by a " /".

Entities
Some characters have a special meaning in XML, like the less than sign (<) that defines the start of an
XML tag.

Most of you know the HTML entity: "&nbsp;". This "no-breaking-space" entity is used in HTML to insert
an extra space in a document. Entities are expanded when a document is parsed by an XML parser.

The following entities are predefined in XML:

Entity References Character


&lt; <
&gt; >
&amp; &
&quot; "
&apos; '

PCDATA
PCDATA means parsed character data.
Think of character data as the text found between the start tag and the end tag of an XML element.

PCDATA is text that WILL be parsed by a parser. The text will be examined by the parser for
entities and markup.

Tags inside the text will be treated as markup and entities will be expanded.

However, parsed character data should not contain any &, <, or > characters; these need to be
represented by the &amp; &lt; and &gt; entities, respectively.

CDATA
CDATA means character data.

CDATA is text that will NOT be parsed by a parser. Tags inside the text will NOT be treated as
markup and entities will not be expanded.

XML with correct syntax is "Well Formed" XML.

XML validated against a DTD is "Valid" XML.

Well Formed XML Documents


A "Well Formed" XML document has correct XML syntax.

The syntax rules were described in the previous chapters:

 XML documents must have a root element


 XML elements must have a closing tag

 XML tags are case sensitive

 XML elements must be properly nested

 XML attribute values must be quoted

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>


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

Valid XML Documents


A "Valid" XML document is a "Well Formed" XML document, which also conforms to the rules of a
Document Type Definition (DTD):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>


<!DOCTYPE note SYSTEM "Note.dtd">
<note>
<to>Tove</to>
<from>Jani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>

The DOCTYPE declaration in the example above, is a reference to an external DTD file. The content of
the file is shown in the paragraph below.

XML DTD
The purpose of a DTD is to define the structure of an XML document. It defines the structure with a
list of legal elements:

<!DOCTYPE note
[
<!ELEMENT note (to,from,heading,body)>
<!ELEMENT to (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT from (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT heading (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT body (#PCDATA)>
]>

If you want to study DTD, you will find our DTD tutorial on our homepage.

XML Schema
W3C supports an XML-based alternative to DTD, called XML Schema:

<xs:element name="note">

<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="to" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="from" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="heading" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="body" type="xs:string"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>

</xs:element>

The purpose of a DTD (Document Type Definition) is to define the legal building
blocks of an XML document.

A DTD defines the document structure with a list of legal elements and
attributes.

Start learning DTD now!


DTD Newspaper Example
<!DOCTYPE NEWSPAPER [

<!ELEMENT NEWSPAPER (ARTICLE+)>


<!ELEMENT ARTICLE (HEADLINE,BYLINE,LEAD,BODY,NOTES)>
<!ELEMENT HEADLINE (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT BYLINE (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT LEAD (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT BODY (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT NOTES (#PCDATA)>

<!ATTLIST ARTICLE AUTHOR CDATA #REQUIRED>


<!ATTLIST ARTICLE EDITOR CDATA #IMPLIED>
<!ATTLIST ARTICLE DATE CDATA #IMPLIED>
<!ATTLIST ARTICLE EDITION CDATA #IMPLIED>

]>

An XML Schema describes the structure of an XML document.

In this tutorial you will learn how to create XML Schemas, why XML Schemas
are more powerful than DTDs, and how to use XML Schema in your application.

Start learning XML Schema now!


XML Schema Example
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">

<xs:element name="note">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="to" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="from" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="heading" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="body" type="xs:string"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>

</xs:schema>

You might also like