Chapter 2 : Data Mapping and Exchange

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Metadata I

• Metadata is structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise

makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage information resource.
• Metadata is often called data about data or information about information.
• Metadata (Meta content) is denied as the data providing information about one or
more aspects of the data, such as:
- Means of creation of the data
- Purpose of the data
-Time and date of creation,
-Creator or author of the data,
- Location on a computer network where the data
were created.
Metadata II

Metadata types
(i) Structural metadata:
 It is used to describe the structure of database objects such as tables, columns, keys and
indexes.
 Indicates how compound objects are put together, eg how pages are ordered to form chapters.
(ii) Guide metadata:
 It is used to help humans find specific items and is usually expressed as a set of keywords in a
natural language.
 Describes a resource for purposes such as discovery and identifcation.
 It can include elements such as title, abstract, author, and keywords.
(iii) Administrative metadata:
 It provides information to help manage a resource, such as when and how it was created, file
type and other technical information, and who can access it.
Data Representation and Encoding I

 Before natural language data can be written to a computer recording device like disk, tape or memory it
needs to be put in a format that the computer recognizes.
 For example, to record data blocks on the surface of the disk the data needs to be represented as a
string of pulses, where each pulse is in either one of two states: positive or negative polarity.
 Since there can be only two states, we refer to this as binary notation.
 The direction of the polarity (i.e. + or -) determines if the data is interpreted as a binary one or a binary
zero.
Computer Data types:
Numeric Data: Consists of only numbers 0,1,..,9
Alphabetic Data: Consists of only the letters A-Z, in both uppercase
and lowercase , and blank character.
Alphanumeric Data: is a string of symbols where a symbol may be one
of the letters A-Z in either uppercase or lowercase, or one of the digits
0-9 ,or special characters such as, + - * / , . () = etc.
Data Representation and Encoding II

 So how do we tell the computer to store the letter "A", specifically a capital A?
 Computer is a digital system and can only deal with l's and 0s.
 That means digital computers use the binary system to represent and
manipulate numeric values.
 So to deal with letters and symbols they use alphanumeric codes
 Well, in order to represent a human readable character in other than a one or
zero, computer designers came up with various coding schemes consisting of
a string of ones and zeros to represent many of the common characters
needed by computer users.
 Computer codes are used for internal representation of data in the computers.
 As computers use binary numbers for internal data representation, computer
codes use binary coding schemas.
Data Representation and Encoding III

 In binary coding, every symbol that appears in the data is represented by a group
of bits.
 The group bits used to represents a symbol is called a byte.
 There are three very popular coding schemes in use today:
-ASCII
-EBCDIC
-Unicode
 These coding schemes made it practical for us to record and process natural
language characters on "two-state" or binary computing devices.
Data Representation and Encoding IV

ASCII
 The American Standard-Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) pronounced "as-kee" is

a 7 bit code based on the ordering of the English alphabets.

 It was developed by American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

 It is a standard code to represent alphanumeric data.

 It can represents:

-Latin alphabet,
-Arabic numerals
-standard punctuation characters
-Plus small set of accents and other European special characters
 The first ASCII code was 7-bit code.

 The 7-bit code system can represent 128 characters which means only 7 bits are

required to represent an ASCII character.

Data Representation and Encoding V

They include:
o Printable characters including 26 upper-case letters (A to Z)
o 26 lowercase letters (a - z),
o 10 numerals (0 to 9) and 33 special characters such as mathematical symbols
o space character etc.
o It also denes codes for 33 non-printing obsolete characters except for carriage return and/or
line feed.
 However, since the smallest size representation on most computers is a byte, a byte is used
to store an ASCII character.
 Then ASCII 7-bit code system was extended to 8-bit code.
 The 8-bit code system can represent 256 characters.
 The Most Significant Bit of an ASCII character is 0.
Data Representation and Encoding VI

Lets take a look at how the character "A" is encoded in ASCII.

Data Representation and Encoding VII

• Using the above ASCII conversion chart we see that a capital "A" is
a hexadecimal 41.
• If we convert this hexadecimal number to its 8-bit binary
representation we get "01000001".
• So the disk surface will have the polarity changed to record the
following string of 8 bits: 01000001
• Lets look at this again.
• This time lets also convert a lowercase "a" as well:
Data Representation and Encoding VIII

EBCDIC(Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code)

 EBCDIC, pronounced "ebb-c-dick", was deployed in the early 1960s by IBM when they
announced a new computer series that became known as System 360.
 It turned out that EBCDIC followed a direction totally different from ASCII, where the
heritage of paper tape was clearly established.
 So EBCDIC and ASCII are not compatible and require a translation to move data from an
EBCDIC machine to an ASCII machine and vice versa.
 It uses 8 bits to represent a symbol.
 It can represent 256 different characters.
 Zoned decimal numbers are used to represent numeric values (Positive, negative,
unsigned)
Data Representation and Encoding IX

• A sign indicator (C for plus, D for minus and F for unsigned) is used in the zoned position
of the rightmost digit.
• It is used primarily in the larger computer environments, specifically mainframes and
some mid-frame computing platforms.
Data Representation and Encoding X
Unicode(Universal Code)
• Both EBCDIC and ASCII were built around the Latin alphabet.
• As such, they are restricted in their abilities to provide data representation for the non
Latin alphabets used by the majority of the worlds population.
• As all countries began using computers, each was devising codes that would most
effectively represent their native languages.
• ASCII and EBCDIC worked fine for English and the Romance languages but didn't have
enough character combinations to support the alphabets of languages from Eastern
Europe, Asia and Africa.
• No single encoding system supports all languages Different encoding systems conflict.
Data Representation and Encoding XI

Unicode features:
 Provides a consistent way of encoding multilingual plain text
 Defines codes for characters used in all major languages of the world
 Defines codes for special characters, mathematical symbols, technical symbols, and
diacritics .........
 Capacity to encode as many as a million characters
 Assigns each character a unique numeric value and name
 Reserves a part of the code space for private use
 Affords simplicity and consistency of ASCII, even corresponding characters have same
code
 Species an algorithm for the presentation of text with bi-directional behavior
Data Representation and Encoding XII

• Encoding Forms
UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32.
• With 16 bits Unicode can support over 65,000 characters.
• The first 256 Unicode characters are the same as ASCII.
• Unicode is required by web users and modern standards XML, Java, ECMAScript
(JavaScript), LDAP, CORBA 3.0, WML.
Data Representation and Encoding XII

Two Important Management Issues to Remember

 There are two very important principles to remember when moving data in a heterogeneous
computing environment.
 Data moved from one computer to another may be using different coding schemes i.e. ASCII to
EBCIDIC or vise versa.
 This data movement will require a conversion to the coding scheme on the target platform.
 For small data sets this may not be an issue; but for very large data sets found on most enterprises
this data conversion will be noticeable overhead that affects performance.
 Notice that the collating (sort) sequence is different between ASCII and EBCIDIC.
 Numeric and lower case characters sort in different sequences in each.
 For example in ASCII numbers sort before letters but in EBCDIC letters sort before numbers.
XML Technologies
Part II
What is XML? I

 XML stands for Extensible Markup Language

 XML is a markup language much like HTML
 XML was designed to describe data, not to display data
 XML tags are not predefined.
 You must dene your own tags XML is designed to be self-descriptive
 XML is a W3C Recommendation.
 XML was designed to describe data.
 HTML was designed to display data.
What is XML? II

Difference between XML and HTML

• XML is not a replacement for HTML; XML is a complement to HTML.
• XML is a software- and hardware-independent tool for carrying information.
• XML was designed to describe data, with focus on what data is
• HTML was designed to display data, with focus on how data looks.
• HTML is about displaying information, while XML is about carrying information.
What is XML? III

 With XML You Invent Your Own Tags

 The tags (like <to> and <from>) are not predefined in any XML standard.
 These tags are "invented" by the author of the XML document.
 That is because the XML language has no predefined tags.
 The tags used in HTML are predefined.
 HTML documents can only use tags defined in the HTML standard (like <p>, <h1>, etc.).
What is XML? IV

The power of XML

• XML is used in many aspects of web development, often to simplify data storage and
sharing.
• As general,Instead of serving as a language for displaying information, XML is a language
for storing and carrying information.
• XML can also be used to share data between disparate systems and organizations.
• The reason for this is that an XML document is simply a text file and nothing more.
• It is well-structured, easy to understand, easy to parse, easy to manipulate, and is
considered human-readable.
• Finally, XML is a non-proprietary specification and is free to anyone who wishes to use it.
What is XML? V

(i) XML Separates Data from HTML

 If you need to display dynamic data in your HTML document, it will

take a lot of work to edit the HTML each time the data changes.
 With XML, data can be stored in separate XML files.
 This way you can concentrate on using HTML/CSS for display and layout, and be sure that
changes in the underlying data will not require any changes to the HTML.
 With a few lines of JavaScript code, you can read an external XML file and update the data
content of your web page.
What is XML? VI

(ii) XML Simplifies Data Sharing

 In the real world, computer systems and databases contain data in incompatible formats.
 XML data is stored in plain text format.
 This provides a software- and hardware-independent way of storing data.
 This makes it much easier to create data that can be shared by different applications.
(iii) XML Simplifies Data Transport
 One of the most time-consuming challenges for developers is to exchange data between
incompatible systems over the Internet.
 Exchanging data as XML greatly reduces this complexity, since the data can be read by
different incompatible applications.
What is XML? VII

(iv) Internet Languages Written in XML

 Several Internet languages are written in XML.
 Here are some examples: XHTML, XML Schema, SVG, WSDL and RSS.
Well-Formed XML I

• To the purist there is no such thing as well-formed XML; a document is either XML
and therefore, by definition, well-formed, or its just text.
• But in common parlance well-formed XML means a document that follows all its
rules governing the following:
-How the content is separated from the metadata (markup)
-What is used to identify the markup
-What the constituent parts are
• - In what order and where these parts can appear
Well-Formed XML II

(i) Forbidden Characters

• The first thing to know before writing XML is that a few restrictions exist on what
characters are permitted in an XML document.
• These rules vary slightly depending on whether you’re using version 1.0 or 1.1, the
latter being a bit more permissive.
• Both versions forbid the use of null in a document; this is the character represented by
0x0 in hexadecimal.
 In version 1.0 you are also forbidden to use the characters represented by the
hexadecimal codes between 001 and 019, except for three: the tab (09), the newline
(0A), and the carriage return (0D).
 For example, you cannot use the character 07, known as the bell character, because it
sounds a bell or a beep on some systems.
Well-Formed XML III

 In version 1.1 you can use all these control characters although their use is a little
unusual.
 You see how to specify which version you are using in the next section.
 A few characters in the Unicode specification also can’t be used but you’re unlikely to
come across these.
 You can find the full list in the W3C0s XML Recommendation.
(ii) XML Prolog
 The first part of a document is the prolog.
 It is optional so you won’t see it every time, but if it does exist it must come first.
 The prolog begins with an XML declaration which, in its simplest form, looks like the
following: <?xml version=1.0?>
Well-Formed XML IV

• This declaration contains only one piece of information, the version number, and
currently this will always be either 1.0 or 1.1.
• Sometimes the declaration may also contain information about the encoding used in
the document:
<? xml version=1.0 encoding=UTF-8?>
• When an XML processor reads a document, it has to know which encoding was used;
but, its a chicken-and-egg situation if it does not know the encoding how can it read
what you have put in the declaration?
Well-Formed XML V

• The simple answer to this lies in the fact that the first few bytes of a file can contain a
byte order mark, or BOM.
• This helps the parser enough to be able to read the encoding specified in the
declaration.
• Once it knows this it can decode the rest of the document.
• Two main encoding systems use Unicode: UTF-8 and UTF-16.
• UTF stands for UCS Transformation Format, and UCS itself means Universal Character
Set.
• The number refers to how many bits are used to represent a simple character, either 8
or 16 (one or two bytes, respectively).
Well-Formed XML VI

 The reason UTF-8 manages with only one byte whereas UTF-16 needs two is because UTF-
8 uses a single byte to represent the more commonly used characters and two or three bytes
for the less common ones.
 UTF-16 uses two bytes for the majority of characters and three bytes for the rest.
 All XML processors are mandated to understand UTF-8 and UTF-16 even if those are the
only encodings they can read.
 UTF-8 is the default for documents without encoding information.
Well-Formed XML VII

(iii) Completing the Declaration

 Now that you have specified the type of encoding you are using, you can finish the
declaration.
 The final part of the declaration is determining whether the document is considered
to be standalone:
<?xml version=1.0 encoding=UTF-8 standalone=yes?>
 Sometimes there are a few additional, elements to the XML prolog.
 These optional parts include comments and processing instructions.
Well-Formed XML VIII

• Comments are usually meant for human consumption and are not supposed to be part of
the actual data in a document.
• They are initiated by the sequence <! -- and terminated by -- >.
• Following is example.xml with a comment added:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!--This is a comment in XML declaration -->

• Once the XML prolog is finished you need to create the root element of the document.
• XML documents form a tree structure that starts at "the root" and branches to "the
leaves".
• The following section details elements and how to create them:
Well-Formed XML IX

 The first line is the XML declaration.

 It defines the XML version (1.0).
 The next line describes the root element of the document (like saying:
 "this document is a message"):
 The next 4 lines describe 4 child elements of the root.
Well-Formed XML X

Creating Elements
 Elements are the basic building blocks of XML and all documents will have at least one.
 All elements are denfined in one of two ways.
 At its simplest, an element with content consists of a start tag, which is a left angle bracket
(<) followed by the name of the element, such as myElement,and then a right angle bracket
(>).
 So a full start tag might be < myElement >.
 To close the element the end tag starts with a left angle bracket, a forward slash, and then
the name of the element and a right angle bracket.
 So the end tag for < myElement > would be </myElement >.
 You can add spaces after the name in a start tag, such as <myElement >, but not before
the name as in < myElement>.
Well-Formed XML XI

XML Element Naming Rules

(i) Naming Styles
 In addition to the two ways to define an element, there are a few different naming styles for
elements and, as in many things IT-related, people can get quite evangelical about them.
 The one thing almost everyone agrees on is to be consistent; choose a style for the document
and stick with it.
Well-Formed XML XI

Following are the main contenders for how you should name your elements the main idea is
how you distinguish separate words in an element name:
Naming Style
Pascal-casing: This capitalizes separate words including the first: <MyElement/>.
Camel-casing: Similar to Pascal except that the first letter is lowercase:<myElement /> .
Underscored names: Use an underscore to separate words:<my_element />.
Hyphenated names: Separate words with a hyphen: <my-element />.
Well-Formed XML XI

Naming Specifications
• XML has certain specific rules governing which names you can use for its markup
object.
• An element name can begin with either an underscore or an uppercase or
lowercase letter from the Unicode character set.This means you can use the
Roman alphabet used by English and many other Western languages, the Cyrillic
one used by Russian and its language relatives, characters from Greek, or any of
the other numerous scripts, such as Thai or Arabic, that are defined in the Unicode
standard.
Well-Formed XML XIII

• Names can contain letters, numbers, and other characters

• A name consists of at least one letter: a,z or A to Z.
• Subsequent characters can also be a dash (-)or a digit.
• Names are case-sensitive, so the start and end tags must match exactly.
• Names cannot contain spaces
• Names beginning with the letters XML, either in uppercase or lowercase,
are reserved, and shouldn’t be used (although many parsers allow them in
practice)
Well-Formed XML XIV

The following Table provides some examples of correctly and incorrectly

formed elements:
Well-Formed XML XV

Root Element
• The next step after writing the prolog is creating the root element.
• All documents must have one and only one root element.
• Everything else in the document lies under this element to form a
hierarchical tree.
• One example is when using XML as a logging format.
• A typical log file might look like this:
Well-Formed XML XVI

The problem with this format, though, is that there isn’t a unique root
element; you have to add one to make it well-formed:
Well-Formed XML XVII

XML Elements can be Empty

An alternative syntax can be used for XML elements with no content:
Instead of writing a book element (with no content) like this:
<book></book> .
It can be written like this: <book/> .
This sort of element syntax is called self-closing.
Well-Formed XML XVIII

XML Elements are Extensible

• XML elements can be extended to carry more information.
• One of the beauties of XML, is that it can be extended without breaking
applications.
• If you want to add more data, perhaps a middle name forexample, to the
application users data, you can do that easily by creating a new attribute, middle
Name:
Well-Formed XML XIX

Other Elements
 Underneath the root element can lie other elements that follow the
same rules for naming and attributes and, as you saw earlier, there
can also be free text.
 These nested elements can be used to show individual or repetitive
items of data depending on what you are trying to represent.
 For example, your root element could be <person> and the elements
underneath could show the persons characteristics, such as:
<biography> and <address>.
Well-Formed XML XX

Attributes
Attributes provide additional information about an element.
Elements are one of the two main building blocks of XML the other one
is attributes.
Attributes are name-value pairs associated with an element.
You can add a couple of attributes to the example document like so:
Well-Formed XML XXI
 A number of rules also govern attributes exist:
 Attributes consist of a name and a value separated by an equals sign.
 The name, for example, myFirstAttribute, follows the same rules as element names.
 The attribute value must be in quotes.
 You can use either single or double quotes, the choice is entirely yours.
 You can use single on some attributes and double on others, but you can’t mix them
in a single attribute.
 There must be a value part, even if its just empty quotes.
 You can’t have something like <option selected> as you might in HTML.
 Attribute names must be unique per element.
 If you use double quotes as the delimiter you can’t also use them as part of the value.
 The same applies for single quotes.
Well-Formed XML XXII

Element and Attribute Content

Attribute values and elements can both contain character data (called text in normal
parlance).
You’ve already seen examples of attributes in earlier code snippets.
A similar example for an element would be:

There are only two more restrictions to follow regarding character content.
Two characters cannot appear in attribute values or direct element content: the ampersand
(&) and the left angle bracket (<).
You cannot use the latter because its used to delimit elements and it can confuse the
parser.
You cannot use the former because its used to begin entity and character references.
Well-Formed XML XIX

Elements Versus Attributes

On many occasions you will have a choice whether to represent data as an element
or an attribute.
There are no fixed rules regarding whether you should use one form or the other, but
the following are some things to consider when making.
Cont..

There are no rules about when to use attributes or when to use element.
XML Attributes for Metadata
Sometimes ID references are assigned to elements.
These IDs can be used to identify XML elements in much the same way as the id
attribute in HTML.
This example demonstrates this
Cont..

 The id attributes above are for identifying the different books.

 It is not a part of the book itself.
 Metadata (data about data) should be stored as attributes, and the data itself
should be stored as elements.
 Information contained in an attribute is generally considered metadata; that is,
information about the data in the element, as opposed to the data itself.
 An element can have as many attributes as desired, as long as each has a
unique name.
XML Tree Structure I

• Another area where XML-formatted data flourishes over simple text files
is when representing a hierarchy; for instance a file system.
• This scenario needs a root with several folders and files; each folder then
may have its own subfolders, which can also contain folders and files.
• This can go on indefinitely.
• If all you had was a text file, you could try something like this, which has
a column representing the path and one to describe whether its a folder
or a file:
XML Tree Structure II

 As you can see, this is not pretty and the information is hard for us humans
to read and quickly assimilate.
 Comparatively, now look at one possible XML version of the same
information:
XML Tree Structure III

This hierarchy is much easier to appreciate.

XML Tree Structure IV

 There is less repetition of data and it would be fairly easy to parse XML
documents must contain a root element.
 This element is "the parent" of all other elements.
 The elements in an XML document form a document tree.
 The tree starts at the root and branches to the lowest level of the tree.
 All elements can have sub elements (child elements).
 The terms parent, child, and sibling are used to describe the relationships
between elements.
 Parent elements have children.
 Children on the same level are called siblings (brothers or sisters).
 All elements can have text content and attributes (just like in HTML).
XML Tree Structure V

Example
XML Syntax Rules I

(i) All XML Elements Must Have a Closing Tag

Every element must have a closing tag.
In HTML, some elements do not have to have a closing tag: <p> This is
a paragraph <br>
In XML, it is illegal to omit the closing tag.
All elements must have a closing tag: <p> This is a paragraph.</p> <br
/>
(ii) XML Tags are Case Sensitive
The tag <Letter> is different from the tag <letter>.
Opening and closing tags must be written with the same case:
XML Syntax Rules II

(v) XML Attribute Values Must be enclosed in Quoted

(vi) White-space is preserved in XML
(vii) Entity References
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:
There are 5 predefined entity references in XML:
Entities are a kind of auto text; a way of entering text into an XML document without
typing it all out.
XML Syntax Rules III

Note: Only the characters "<" and "&" are strictly illegal in XML.
The greater than character is legal, but it is a good habit to replace it.
XML DTD and XML Schema

How does an XML processor check your xml document?

There are two main checks that XML processors make:
1. Checking that your document is well-formed ( Syntax rule)
2. Checking that it's valid (syntax-check your XML either in XML DTD or XSD)
• DTD- Document Type Definition

• XSD-XML Schema Definition

Why need XML Validator
– Use our XML validator to syntax-check your XML.
– Errors in XML documents will stop your XML applications unlike HTML
browser
XML DTD

An XML document with correct syntax is called "Well Formed".

An XML document validated against a DTD is "Well Formed" and "Valid".
The purpose of a DTD is to define the structure of an XML document and a list
of legal elements.
How you add a DTD to our XML document
1. DTDs can be separate documents (or )
2. They can be built into an XML document using a special
element named <!DOCTYPE>.
XML DTD cont..

An XML Document with a DTD (example1.xml)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/css" href="css1.css"?>
<!DOCTYPE document
[ <!ELEMENT document (heading, message)> <!ELEMENT
heading (#PCDATA)> <!ELEMENT message (#PCDATA)>
]>
<document>
<heading> Hello From XML </heading>
<message> This is an XML document! </message>
</document>
XML DTD cont..

Valid XML Document with DTD (example2.xml)

The DOCTYPE declaration is a reference to an external DTD file "Note.dtd“
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE note SYSTEM "Note.dtd">
<note>
<to>Chala</to>
<from>Sena</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>
Note.dtd
<!DOCTYPE note
[
<!ELEMENT note (to,from,heading,body)>
<!ELEMENT to (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT from (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT heading (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT body (#PCDATA)>
]>
XML DTD cont..

The DTD above is interpreted like this:

!DOCTYPE note defines that the root element of the 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“
Note
#PCDATA means parse-able text data.
When NOT to Use a Document Definition?
When you are working with small XML files, creating document definitions may
be a waste of time.
XML Schema

Another way of validating XML documents: using XML schemas.

The XML Schema language is also referred to as XML Schema
Definition (XSD), describes the structure of an XML document.
defines the legal building blocks (elements and attributes) of an XML
document like DTD.
defines which elements are child elements
defines the number and order of child elements
defines whether an element is empty or can include text
defines data types for elements and attributes
defines default and fixed values for elements and attributes
XML Schema cont..

XML Schemas will be used in most Web applications as a

replacement for DTDs.
Here are some reasons:
XML Schemas are extensible to future additions
XML Schemas are richer and more powerful than DTDs
XML Schemas are written in XML
XML Schemas support data types and namespaces
Creating XML Schemas by Using XML Schema-Creation Tools
HiT Software
xmlArchitect
XMLspy
XML Ray
Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
XML Schema cont..

XSD Simple Element

The syntax for defining a simple element
Default and Fixed Values for Simple Elements
XSD Attributes
The syntax for defining an attribute
Default and Fixed Values for Attributes
Optional and Required Attributes
XSD Complex Elements
How to Define a Complex Element using XML Schema
XSD Empty Elements
XSD Indicators
Order indicators are:
All
Choice
Sequence
XML Schema cont..

• XSD Simple Element

– A simple element is an XML element that can contain only text.
– It cannot contain any other elements or attributes.
– XML Schema has a lot of built-in data types. The most common types are:
1. xs:string
2. xs:decimal
3. xs:integer
4. xs:boolean
5. xs:date
6. xs:time
• The syntax for defining a simple element is:
<xs:element name="xxx" type="yyy"/>
• Example
<lastname>Refsnes</lastname>
<age>36</age>
<dateborn>1970-03-27</dateborn>
<xs:element name="lastname" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="age" type="xs:integer"/>
<xs:element name="dateborn" type="xs:date"/>
XML Schema cont..

Default and Fixed Values for Simple Elements

Simple elements may have a default value or a fixed value specified.

1. A default value is automatically assigned to the element when no other value is

specified.
<xs:element name="color" type="xs:string" default="red"/>

2. A fixed value is also automatically assigned to the element, and you cannot specify
another value.
<xs:element name="color" type="xs:string" fixed="red"/>
XML Schema cont..

XSD Attributes
Simple elements cannot have attributes.
If an element has attributes, it is considered to be of a complex type. But the attribute itself
is always declared as a simple type.
The syntax for defining an attribute is:
<xs : attribute name="xxx" type="yyy"/>
Example
<lastname lang="EN">Smith</lastname>
<xs:attribute name="lang" type="xs:string"/>
Default and Fixed Values for Attributes
Attributes may have a default value or a fixed value specified.
<xs:attribute name="lang" type="xs:string" default="EN"/>
<xs:attribute name="lang" type="xs:string" fixed="EN"/>
Optional and Required Attributes
Attributes are optional by default. To specify that the attribute is required, use the "use"
attribute:
<xs:attribute name="lang" type="xs:string" use="required"/>
XML Schema cont..
• XSD Complex Elements
– A complex element is an XML element that contains other elements and/or
attributes.
– There are four kinds of complex elements:
• Example:
1. A complex XML element, "product", which is empty:
<product pid="1345"/>
2.A complex XML element, "employee", which contains only other
elements:
<employee>
<firstname>John</firstname>
<lastname>Smith</lastname>
</employee>
3. A complex XML element, "food", which contains only text:
<food type="dessert">Ice cream</food>
4. A complex XML element, "description", which contains both elements and
text:
<description>
It happened on <date lang=“EN">03.03.99</date>
</description>
XML Schema cont..
• How to Define a Complex Element using XML Scheme
Complex XML element, "employee", which contains only other elements:
<employee>
<firstname>John</firstname>
<lastname>Smith</lastname>
</employee>
The "employee" element can be declared directly by naming the element:
<xs:element name="employee">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="firstname" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="lastname" type="xs:string"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
An empty complex element cannot have contents, only attributes.
<product prodid="1345" />
It is possible to declare the "product" element more compactly:
<xs:element name="product">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:attribute name="prodid" type="xs:positiveInteger"/>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
XML Schema cont..

XSD Indicators
How elements are to be used in documents with indicators.
Order indicators are used to define the order of the elements. They are:
1. All
2. Choice
3. Sequence
All Indicator:
The <all> indicator specifies that the child elements can appear in any order, and that each child
element must occur only once:
<xs:element name="person">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:all>
<xs:element name="firstname" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="lastname" type="xs:string"/>
</xs:all>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
XML Schema cont..

Choice Indicator:
The <choice> indicator specifies that either one child element or another can occur:
<xs:element name="person">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:choice>
<xs:element name="employee" type="employee"/>
<xs:element name="member" type="member"/>
</xs:choice>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
Sequence Indicator:
The <sequence> indicator specifies that the child elements must appear in a specific
order:
<xs:element name="person">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="firstname" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="lastname" type="xs:string"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
XML Schema - Example

XML Example (“note.xml”)

<note>
<to>Guyo</to>
<from>Yadani</from>
<heading>Reminder</heading>
<body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>
XSD Example (“note.xsd”)
<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>
XML Schema - Example

Example (shiporder.xml):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<shiporder orderid="889923">
<orderperson>John Smith</orderperson>
<shipto>
<name>Ola Nordmann</name>
<address>Langgt 23</address>
<city>4000 Stavanger</city>
<country>Norway</country>
</shipto>
</shiporder>
XML Schema - Example

Example "shiporder.xsd":
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xs:element name="shiporder">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="orderperson" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="shipto">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="name" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="address" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="city" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="country" type="xs:string"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:sequence>
<xs:attribute name="orderid" type="xs:string" use="required"/>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:schema>
XML Parser (Parsing XML documents)

All modern browsers have a built-in XML parser.

An XML parser converts an XML document into an XML DOM object -
which can then be manipulated with JavaScript.
Parse an XML Document
The following code fragment parses an XML document into an XML DOM
object:
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
{ // code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
}
else
{ // code for IE6, IE5
xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
xmlhttp.open("GET","books.xml",false);
xmlhttp.send();
xmlDoc=xmlhttp.responseXML;
XML Parser (Parsing XML documents)

XML DOM
 The XML DOM defines a standard way for accessing and manipulating XML documents.
 The XML DOM views an XML document as a tree-structure.
 All elements can be accessed through the DOM tree.
 Their content (text and attributes) can be modified or deleted, and new elements can be
created.
 The elements, their text, and their attributes are all known as nodes.
The HTML DOM
 The HTML DOM defines a standard way for accessing and manipulating HTML documents.
 All HTML elements can be accessed through the HTML DOM.
XML Parser (Parsing XML documents)
Load an XML File - Cross-browser
parses an XML document ("note.xml") into an XML DOM object and then extracts some information from it with a JavaScript:
Example
<html>
<body>
<span id="to"></span>
<span id="from"></span>
<span id="message"></span>
<script>
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
{ // code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
}
else
{ // code for IE6, IE5
xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
xmlhttp.open("GET","note.xml",false);
xmlhttp.send();
xmlDoc=xmlhttp.responseXML;
document.getElementById("to").innerHTML= xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("to")[0].childNodes[0].nodeValue;
document.getElementById("from").innerHTML= xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("from")[0].childNodes[0].nodeValue;
document.getElementById("message").innerHTML=xmlDoc.getElementsByTagName("message")[0].childNodes[0].nodeValu
e;
</script>
</body>
</html>
XSL , XSLT AND XPATH
XSL

XSL stands for Extensible Style sheet Language.

• It is an XML-based Style sheet Language.
• XSL describes how the XML document should be displayed
• XSL consists of three parts:
• XSLT - a language for transforming XML documents
• XPath - a language for navigating in XML documents
• XSL-FO - a language for formatting XML documents
XSLT

XSLT stands for XSL Transformations,

XSLT transforms an XML source-tree into an XML result-tree.
XSLT transforms an XML document into another XML document, recognized by a
browser, like HTML and XHTML.
Add/remove elements and attributes to or from the output file.
Rearrange and sort elements, perform tests and make decisions about which
elements to hide and display, and a lot more.
XSLT uses XPath to find information in an XML document.
XPath is used to navigate through elements and attributes in XML documents.
XSLT Cont..

How Does it Work?

In the transformation process, XSLT uses XPath to define parts of the source
document that should match one or more predefined templates.
When a match is found, XSLT will transform the matching part of the source document
into the result document.
All major browsers such as Internet Explorer ,Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera
supports XML, XSLT, and XPath
XSLT Cont..

XSLT <xsl:stylesheet> Element

defines that this document is an XSLT style sheet document (along with the version number
and XSLT namespace attributes).
XSLT <xsl:template> Element
An XSL style sheet consists of one or more set of rules that are called templates.
A template contains rules to apply when a specified node is matched.
The <xsl:template> element is used to build templates.
XSLT match attribute
The match attribute is used to associate a template with an XML element.
The match attribute can also be used to define a template for the entire XML document.
The value of the match attribute is an XPath expression (i.e. match="/“ defines the whole
document).
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/">
// some output
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
XSLT Cont..
• XSLT <xsl:value-of> Element
– used to extract the value of an XML element and add it to the output stream of the
transformation
• XSLT select attribute
– contains an XPath expression. An XPath expression works like navigating a file system;
a forward slash (/) selects subdirectories.
• XSLT <xsl:for-each> and <xsl:sort> Element
– <xsl:for-each> element to loop through the XML elements, and display all of the
records.
– The <xsl:sort> element is used to sort the output.
– To sort the output, simply add an <xsl:sort> element inside the <xsl:foreach> element in
the XSL file:
<xsl:for-each select="catalog/cd">
<xsl:sort select="artist"/>
<xsl:value-of select="title"/>
<xsl:value-of select="artist"/>
</xsl:for-each>
XSLT Cont..

The XML File

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<catalog>
<cd>
<title>Empire Burlesque</title>
<artist>Bob Dylan</artist>
<country>USA</country>
<company>Columbia</company>
<price>10.90</price>
<year>1985</year>
</cd>
.
.
</catalog>
XSLT Cont..

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

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/">
<html>
<body>
<h2>My CD Collection</h2>
<table border="1">
<tr bgcolor="#9acd32">
<th>Title</th>
<th>Artist</th>
</tr>
<xsl:for-each select="catalog/cd">
<xsl:sort select="artist"/>
<tr>
<td><xsl:value-of select="title"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="artist"/></td>
</tr>
</xsl:for-each>
</table>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
XSLT Cont..

• XSLT <xsl:if> Element

– The <xsl:if> element is used to put a conditional test against the content of
the XML file.
– Syntax
<xsl:if test="expression">
...some output if the expression is true...
</xsl:if>
– To add a conditional test, add the <xsl:if> element inside the <xsl:for-each>
element in the XSL file.
– The value of the required test attribute contains the expression to be
evaluated.
XSLT Cont..

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

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/">
<html>
<body>
<h2>My CD Collection</h2>
<table border="1">
<tr bgcolor="#9acd32">
<th>Title</th>
<th>Artist</th>
</tr>
<xsl:for-each select="catalog/cd">
<xsl:if test="price &gt; 10">
<tr>
<td><xsl:value-of select="title"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="artist"/></td>
<td><xsl:value-of select="price"/></td>
</tr>
</xsl:if>
</xsl:for-each>
</table>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
XSLT Cont..

• XSLT <xsl:choose> Element

– The <xsl:choose> element is used in conjunction with
<xsl:when> and <xsl:otherwise> to express multiple conditional
tests.
– Syntax
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="expression">
... some output ...
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
... some output ....
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
– To insert a multiple conditional test against the XML file, add
the <xsl:choose>, <xsl:when>, and <xsl:otherwise> elements
to the XSL file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> XSLT Cont..
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/">
<html>
<body>
<h2>My CD Collection</h2>
<table border="1">
<tr bgcolor="#9acd32">
<th>Title</th>
<th>Artist</th>
</tr>
<xsl:for-each select="catalog/cd">
<tr>
<td><xsl:value-of select="title"/></td>
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="price &gt; 10">
<td bgcolor="#ff00ff">
<xsl:value-of select="artist"/></td>
</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>
<td><xsl:value-of select="artist"/></td>
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</tr>
</xsl:for-each>
</table>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
XSLT Cont..

• XSLT <xsl:apply-templates> Element

– The <xsl:apply-templates> element applies a template to the current element or it's child
nodes.
– If we add a select attribute to the <xsl:apply-templates> element it will process only the child
element that matches the value of the select attribute.
– We can use the select attribute to specify the order in which the child nodes are processed.
– Some time XSL Style Sheet may have multiple matches
<xsl:template match="cd">
<p>
<xsl:apply-templates select="title"/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="artist"/>
</p>
</xsl:template>
XSLT Cont..

XSLT <xsl:apply-templates> Element Con…

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="/">
<html>
<body>
<h2>My CD Collection</h2>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="cd">
<p>
<xsl:apply-templates select="title"/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="artist"/>
</p>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="title">
Title: <span style="color:#ff0000">
<xsl:value-of select="."/></span> // attribute to specify the current node
<br />
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
XML and XPath

XPath is a syntax for defining parts of an XML document

XPath uses path expressions to navigate in XML documents
XPath contains a library of standard functions
XPath is also used in XSLT, XQuery, XPointer and XLink
Without XPath knowledge you will not be able to create XSLT documents.
XPath is a W3C recommendation
XML and Xpath Cont..

• there are various types of legal XPath expressions:

• Node sets-indicates what type of node you want to match
• Booleans-use the built-in XPath logical operators to produce Boolean results.
Besides Boolean values, XPath can also work with node sets.
<xsl:template match="state[position() > 3]">
<xsl:value-of select="."/>
</xsl:template>
• Numbers- use numbers in expressions
<xsl:apply-templates select="state[population div area > 200]"/>
• Strings-XPath functions are specially designed to work on strings
• Wildcard - to select element nodes
– * -Matches any element node
– @*-Matches any attribute node
– node() -Matches any node of any kind
XML and Xpath Cont..
XML and Xpath Cont..
XML and Xpath Cont..
THANK YOU