Intermediate XML: Creating a DTD
| Learn to plan, write, and analyze the basic building block of XML, the Document Type Definition, which serves as the content model for dozens, perhaps thousands of XML documents. You are creating a vocabulary of tags to be used by the writers of those documents, an explicit structure that will be relied on by a parser when it checks those documents for validity, and finally, a roadmap through those documents for software that will carry out further manipulation and formatting of those documents. This course explains the role of the DTD in an XML environment, walks you through each component of a DTD, and shows you how to create an entire DTD based on existing documents. You also learn how a group goes about creating DTDs during the transition into XML. Note: This course assumes that you already have some familiarity with XML tags. This course is delivered via a detailed PDF online module, complete with everything you need to take in a step-by-step sequence.
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When you complete this course, you will be able to
* Describe the role played by a Document Type Definition in an XML environment
* Describe the role played by the XML parser in validating XML documents using the DTD.
* Declare elements, attributes, entities, and notations in a DTD.
* Add comments and processing instructions to a DTD.
* Analyze a document and create a DTD for documents of that type.
* Plan the process of creating DTDs for your group.
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You will demonstrate what you have learned in
* Detailed challenges to create declarations, building a DTD.
* Weekly quizzes to review the material.
* A project creating an entire DTD for your portfolio.
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Introduction: Why you need a Document Type Definition to get the benefits of XML. How the DTD works with an XML document and a stylesheet. What the parser does with the DTD when validating the document. How DTDs differ from schemas. Why you need to be able to read a DTD even if you are just tagging an XML document. How you point to the DTD from within the XML document.
Declaring Elements. Elements are the nouns of XML—the objects of information. Learn how to create the tag that gives an element its name, to define the type of content that element may contain, and, if it contains other elements, to specify the number and sequence of those components.
Declaring attributes. An attribute is an adjective describing the element—information about the information. Discover why attributes are useful for writers and software agents. Learn how to define one or more attributes for an element, how to write the complete attribute-list declaration, and how to enforce some validation through data-typing.
Declaring entities. Why we have entities, and what they do—pointing to other material, such as an image file, a foreign character, or a piece of boilerplate text. Learn to distinguish between an entity created for use in the XML document, and an entity used only within the DTD itself. Learn which entities can be fed through the parser, and which cannot. Explore ways to point the parser, or later software, to an external file such as an image. Learn why there are only five legitimate types of entity, and how to decide which kind you need.
The final pieces of a DTD: comments, processing instructions, and notations. Looking at the complete DTD, analyzing it, taking it apart, and comparing it with example documents. First draft of your complete DTD.
How a team goes about creating a set of DTDs to model its content. Defining the objects, diagramming the structure of each object, prioritizing, creating DTDs for key objects, deciding on formats, building sophisticated search filters, laying out a conversion path, linking up to live databases, buying or adapting software, training the rest of the team, editing existing materials so their structures match the models. Final draft of your complete DTD.
Contact Hours: 24
