Datasheet

❑ Java APIs for XML Parsing 1.2

❑ XML Schema 1.0 (Schema and Structures)

The current release of Xerces (2.4.0) also has experimental support for:

❑ XML 1.1 Candidate Recommendation

❑ XML Namespaces 1.1 Candidate Recommendation

❑ DOM Level 3 (Core, Load/Save)

A word about experimental functionality: one of the goals of the Xerces project is to provide feedback to

the various standards bodies regarding specifications that are under development. This means the

Xerces developers are implementing support for those standards before the standards are complete. Work

in these areas is always experimental until the specification being implemented has been approved. If

you need functionality that is documented as experimental, you may have to change your code when the

final version of the specification is complete. If the functionality you need is implemented only in an

experimental package, be aware that the functionality may change or be removed entirely as the stan-

dards process continues. A good example is abstract support for grammars (both DTDs and XML

Schema), which was supposed to be part of DOM Level 3. However, the DOM Working Group decided

to cease work on this functionality, so it had to be removed from Xerces. This is a rare and extreme

occurrence, but you should be aware that it has happened. Most situations are less severe, such as

changes in the names and signatures of APIs.

Prerequisites

You must understand a few basics about XML and related standards in order to make good use of the

material in this chapter. Following is a quick review. If you need more information, XML in a Nutshell,

Second Edition by Eliotte Rusty Harold and W. Scott Means is a good source for the relevant background.

Let’s begin with the following simple XML file:

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

2: <book xmlns="http://sauria.com/schemas/apache-xml-book/book"

3: xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"

4: xsi:schemaLocation=

5: "http://sauria.com/schemas/apache-xml-book/book

6: http://www.sauria.com/schemas/apache-xml-book/book.xsd"

7: version="1.0">

8: <title>Professional XML Development with Apache Tools</title>

9: <author>Theodore W. Leung</author>

10: <isbn>0-7645-4355-5</isbn>

11: <month>December</month>

12: <year>2003</year>

13: <publisher>Wrox</publisher>

14: <address>Indianapolis, Indiana</address>

15: </book>

Like all XML files, this file begins with an XML declaration (line 1). The XML declaration says that this is

an XML file, the version of XML being used is 1.0, and the character encoding being used for this file is

UTF-8. Until recently, the version number was always 1.0, but the W3C XML Working Group is in the

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