XML

The Cover Pages is a comprehensive, online reference collection supporting the XML family of markup language standards, XML vocabularies, and related structured information standards

Microsoft XML Core Services | MSXML msdn.microsoft.com

XML runtime performance

google 'xml runtime validation best practice'

[results are sparse, I vaguely recall something from sun java about validating internal vs. external, use runtime validation at system boundaries only; see the note below about considering avoiding validation in a closed environment]

improving XML performance [.NET] msdn.microsoft.com

Consider Validating Large Documents

When you use the XmlDocument class to load a large document that contains errors because the format is not correct, you waste memory and CPU resources. Consider validating the input XML if there is a reasonable chance that the XML is invalid. In a closed environment, you might consider validation an unnecessary overhead, but the decision to use or not use validation is a design decision you need to consider.

google 'xml validation best practice'

XML Programming Best Practices docs.oracle.com

Increasing Performance of XML Validation

If the performance of your XML application decreases due to a parser validation issue, and you need to validate your XML documents, you might improve the performance of your application by writing your own customized code that validates the data as it is being received or parsed, rather than using the setValidating() method of the DocumentBuilderFactory or SaxParserFactory.

When you turn on validation while parsing an XML document with SAX or DOM, the parser might do more validation of the document than you really need, thus decreasing the overall performance of the application. Instead, consider choosing certain points during the parsing of the document when you want to check that the XML document is valid, and add your own Java code at those points.

For example, assume you are writing an application that uses the WebLogic XML Streaming API to processes an XML purchase order. Because you know that the first element of the document should be <purchase_order>, you can quickly verify that the document appears to be valid by pulling the first element off the stream and checking its name. This check does not ensure that the entire XML document is valid, of course, but you can continue checking for known elements as you pull elements from the stream. These quick checks are much faster than using the standard setValidating() methods.

Issue

An application receives an XML document. Should the application validate the XML document prior to processing it? That is, should applications perform run-time validation of inbound XML documents?

Discussion

There is no right or wrong answer to this issue. There are only engineering tradeoffs. So, before making a decision for your particular application, it is important to understand the approaches, their advantages, and their disadvantages.

The Problem With DTD and XML Schema Validation firstobject.com

- great article

google 'xml runtime validation'

Run-Time Validation of Inbound XML Documents - Yea or Nay? xfront.com

XML shortcomings

- Complex constructs such as namespaces can be confusing for the average user
- The overhead of XML encoding tags is significant; an XML document when parsed can be up to seven times the size of the actual data it encodes

XML is ideal for structured information, but not for semi-structured information

[paraphrased from a vendor whitepaper]

xFront xfront.com

tutorials and articles on XML and web technologies

XML Standards Reference msdn.microsoft.com

XML Schema

XML Schemas (XSD) Reference XML Standards Reference, msdn.microsoft.com

XML Schema Part 1: Structures Second Edition w3.org

W3C Recommendation 28 October 2004

XML Schemas: Best Practices xfront.com

W3C XML Schema Definition Language (XSD) 1.1 Part 2: Datatypes w3.org/TR/xmlschema11-2

- this is where the xsd: namespace datatypes are defined (decimal, integer, datetime, ...)

XSD schema references in an XML document

schemaLocation

schemaLocation XML Schemas (XSD) Reference, msdn.microsoft.com

The schemaLocation attribute references an XML Schema document that has a target namespace.

<xsi:schemaLocation="list of anyURI" >

noNamespaceSchemaLocation

noNamespaceSchemaLocation XML Schemas (XSD) Reference, msdn.microsoft.com

The noNamespaceSchemaLocation attribute references an XML Schema document that does not have a target namespace.

<xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="anyURI" >

XML schema view

xs3p XML schema documentation generator xml.fiforms.org

XML schema generation

XML Schema Definition Tool (Xsd.exe) msdn.microsoft.com

download

XSD/XML Schema Generator freeformatter.com

online

DTD

Unfortunately, the DTD specification is part of the SGML specification, which is not freely available.

DTD Statements XML Standards Reference, msdn.microsoft.com

DTD Tutorial w3schools.com

XML else

xsi:type considered harmful ...

W3C Date and Time Formats w3.org

Profile of ISO 8601 with a small set of date/time formats

The formats are as follows. Exactly the components shown here must be present, with exactly this punctuation. Note that the "T" appears literally in the string, to indicate the beginning of the time element, as specified in ISO 8601.

Year: YYYY (eg 1997) Year and month: YYYY-MM (eg 1997-07) Complete date: YYYY-MM-DD (eg 1997-07-16) Complete date plus hours and minutes: YYYY-MM-DDThh:mmTZD (eg 1997-07-16T19:20+01:00) Complete date plus hours, minutes and seconds: YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssTZD (eg 1997-07-16T19:20:30+01:00) Complete date plus hours, minutes, seconds and a decimal fraction of a second YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.sTZD (eg 1997-07-16T19:20:30.45+01:00)

where:

YYYY = four-digit year MM = two-digit month (01=January, etc.) DD = two-digit day of month (01 through 31) hh = two digits of hour (00 through 23) (am/pm NOT allowed) mm = two digits of minute (00 through 59) ss = two digits of second (00 through 59) s = one or more digits representing a decimal fraction of a second TZD = time zone designator (Z or +hh:mm or -hh:mm)

XML schema - datetime w3.org

A summary of the international standard date and time notation [ISO 8601] cl.cam.ac.uk

RELAX NG books.xmlschemata.org

XML Data Types Reference msdn.microsoft.com

xml.com

XML resources xml.com

XML tools

XML editors ibm.com/developerworks

XML notepad microsoft.com

XmlGrid.net xmlgrid.net

online XML to CSV or plain text converter

MSXML