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[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: Create XML
 How do most people feel about imposing a sibling element order significance? Consider the following: <Person> <FirstName>William</FirstName> <LastName>Burroughs</LastName> <Occupation>Author</Occupation> </Person> In truth, the order of the elements under Person does not impact the semantic of a Person. A Person is complete if all items exist and we do not need to know the Name before the Occupation and so on. The child elements make up a set that does not require order but may require completeness. However, it seems harder to write parsers that process elements in a random ordering. So often, an arbitrary order is imposed (presumably) to make parsing easier. Being relatively new to XML, I am curious as to what the current thought is on this? Do most people impose an ordering or do they write their parser code to handle any order the elements may appear in. Of course, this isn't a big deal if my program is producing and consuming the XML. However, if I am consuming a document that a user produced, why should I force them to put FirstName, LastName, and Occupation into a particular order? A Person is still a Person if they appear as LastName, Occupation, and FirstName. Thoughts for an XML newbie to chew on? Is there a best practice for this? R. -----Original Message----- From: Mayne, Peter [mailto:PeterMayne@a...] Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2003 4:44 PM To: xml-dev@l... Subject: RE: Create XML > -----Original Message----- > From: Emmanuil Batsis (Manos) [mailto:mbatsis@n...] > Sent: Friday, 13 June 2003 1:42 AM > To: Mehmet AVSAR; xml-dev@l... > Subject: Re: Create XML > > > You should use an XML API to create/manipulate XML documents > instead of raw string manipulation. Why? No, seriously. For small/simple XML documents such as the OP's, I tend to use a for loop and a few print statements (mod your favourite language) rather than dragging in XML libraries and adding more complicated code. An obvious argument for using an XML API is the guarantee (?) of correct XML at the end. But for simple XML, it's not hard to do it with a string and a loop (or a string template and a replace) and get the same result. I'm certainly not advocating that using XML APIs to create documents is stupid, but surely there's a crossover point where the simplicity of the result doesn't justify the added complexity of an XML API compared to just building a string? Or have I just committed heresy? :-) PJDM -- Peter Mayne Technology Consultant Spherion Technology Solutions Level 1, 243 Northbourne Avenue, Lyneham, ACT, 2602 T: 61 2 62689727 F: 61 2 62689777 The information contained in this email and any attachments to it: (a) may be confidential and if you are not the intended recipient, any interference with, use, disclosure or copying of this material is unauthorised and prohibited; and (b) may contain personal information of the recipient and/or the sender as defined under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Consent is hereby given by the recipient(s) to collect, hold and use such information and any personal information contained in a response to this email, for any reasonable purpose in the ordinary course of Spherion's business, including forwarding this email internally or disclosing it to a third party. All personal information collected by Spherion will be handled in accordance with Spherion's Privacy Policy. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender and delete it. (c) you agree not to employ or arrange employment for any candidate(s) supplied in this email and any attachments without first entering into a contractual agreement with Spherion. You further agree not to divulge any information contained in this document to any person(s) or entities without the express permission of Spherion. 
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