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Re: (newbie) DTD question

• To: Glen Mazza <glenmazza@y...>
• Subject: Re: (newbie) DTD question
• From: "J. David Eisenberg" <catcode@c...>
• Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 14:21:55 -0500 (CDT)
• Cc: xml-dev@l...
• In-reply-to: <20020712190012.74065.qmail@w...>

On Fri, 12 Jul 2002, Glen Mazza wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I thought this type of XML document (with two types of
> "name"s) was acceptable:
> 
> <family>
> <person>
>     <name>
>          <firstname>John</firstname>
>          <lastname>Smith</lastname>
>     </name>
> </person>
> <pet>
>     <name>Spot</name>
> </pet>
> </family>
> 
> Creating a DTD for this appears to be failing on the
> "name" field.
> 
> I define it once for people as:
> <!ELEMENT name (firstname, lastname)>
> 
> and later for pets as
> <!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)>
> 
> But evidently I can only define "name" once, even
> though "name" is in different contexts ("person",
> "pet").  Can I scope "names" within the DTD, sort of
> like this following:  (if so, what's the syntax?)
> 
> <!ELEMENT person.name ....
> <!ELEMENT pet.name ....
> 
> Thanks,
> Glen
>   
> 
You can't redefine an element in a DTD (i.e., make it context dependent).
However, it is easily possible in Relax NG:

<element name="person">
   <element name="name">
       <element name="firstname"><text/></element>
       <element name="lastname"><text/></element>
   </element>
</element>

<element name="pet">
   <element name="name"><text/></element>
</element>

I suspect it's possible with XML Schema as well.
-- 
J. David Eisenberg  http://catcode.com/

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