[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: A little experiment to compare external entities and XIncl
At 2010-08-16 10:33 -0400, Costello, Roger L. wrote: >I did a little experiment. > >I dragged and dropped this into Internet Explorer: > >----------------------------------------------- ><?xml version="1.0"?> ><!DOCTYPE BookStore [ > <!ENTITY Siddhartha SYSTEM "Siddhartha.xml"> >]> ><BookStore> > > &Siddhartha; > ></BookStore> >----------------------------------------------- > >The browser resolved the external entity reference and this is what I saw: > ><?xml version="1.0" ?> ><!DOCTYPE BookStore (View Source for full doctype...)> ><BookStore> > <Book> > <Title>Siddhartha</Title> > <Author>Hermann Hess</Author> > <Date>1951</Date> > <ISBN>0-553-20884-5</ISBN> > <Publisher>Bantam Books</Publisher> > </Book> ></BookStore> > > >Next, I dragged and dropped this into Internet Explorer: > >----------------------------------------------- ><?xml version="1.0"?> ><BookStore xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"> > > <xi:include href="Siddhartha.xml" parse="xml"> > <xi:fallback /> > </xi:include> > ></BookStore> >----------------------------------------------- > >The browser did NOT resolve the XInclude reference. I saw no change. Doesn't surprise me. >I repeated the experiment with the Firefox browser and it exhibited >the same behavior as Internet Explorer. > >QUESTIONS > >1. What should I conclude from this little experiment? Should I >conclude that the browsers support external entities but do not >support XInclude? I would. XInclude is not part of the XML specification ... it is a separate specification. >2. <xi:include> elements are resolved by the XML parser, correct? I wouldn't think so. An XML processor is defined by the XML specification and XInclude is a supplemental specification that isn't part of the definition of XML. I would expect an XInclude processor (if such exist ... I haven't had to look for one) would incorporate an XML processor and would give you what you want. But if something claims it supports XML I would not therefore conclude that it supports XInclude. >By "resolve" I mean that the <xi:include> element is replaced by the >contents of the file it references. I thought XInclude processing was ambiguous: for example, does one validate an instance with XInclude before or after the element is replaced with its contents? >3. The XML parsers in IE and Firefox do not support XInclude, correct? I doubt it ... they only claim to support XML. >4. The XML parser in IE is MSXML, correct? The XML processor in IE works very well. The only thing I don't like about it is the way it builds the node tree for XSLT processing by implicitly tossing white-space-only text nodes that I may want to keep. I very much like the way it processes declaration subsets. >5. What is the XML parser in Firefox? I don't know, but I have experienced it choking on some declaration subsets in ways that don't choke IE. >6. What XML parsers support XInclude? I would rather ask which XInclude processors are out there ... XInclude isn't part of XML. BTW, regarding terminology from the introduction of XML, section 1.0: http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-xml-20081126/#sec-intro [Definition: A software module called an XML processor is used to read XML documents and provide access to their content and structure.] I see that as restricting it to the XML specification, not including things like XInclude. From XInclude: http://www.w3.org/TR/xinclude/#intro This specification introduces a generic mechanism for merging XML documents (as represented by their information sets) for use by applications that need such a facility. Which implies that you would need an XInclude processor for merging, not that XInclude somehow becomes part of what an XML Processor is obliged to support. I hope this helps. . . . . . . . . . Ken -- XSLT/XQuery training: after http://XMLPrague.cz 2011-03-28/04-01 Vote for your XML training: http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/x/i/ Crane Softwrights Ltd. http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/x/ G. Ken Holman mailto:gkholman@CraneSoftwrights.com Male Cancer Awareness Nov'07 http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/x/bc Legal business disclaimers: http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/legal
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