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XML Reference

The following sections describe the XML specifications, application programming interfaces (APIs), and tools supported by WebLogic Server:

- Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 Specification

- Simple API for XML (SAX) 2.0

- Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 API

- W3C XML Namespaces 1.0 Recommendation

- Java API for XML Processing (JAXP) 1.1

- Apache Xerces Java Parser API

- Apache Xalan XML Stylesheet Language Transformer (XSLT) API

- Additional Resources

Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 Specification

The W3C Recommendation for XML provides the following abstract:

"The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a subset of SGML that is completely described in this document. Its goal is to enable generic SGML to be served, received, and processed on the Web in the way that is now possible with HTML. XML has been designed for ease of implementation and for interoperability with both SGML and HTML."

The complete XML specification is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/.

Simple API for XML (SAX) 2.0

The SAX API is platform-independent and language-neutral. It is a standard interface for event-based XML parsing that was developed collaboratively by the members of the XML-DEV mailing list.

SAX applications process an XML document by creating a parser object and associating handlers with XML events. Once these tasks are done, the parser can read through the document as events occur, and pass them to the handlers. Events represent the entities within the document, such as start of document, end of document, start of element, and end of element. The SAX interface provides a simple coding model and is useful for processing XML documents with a relatively simple hierarchical structure. Hence, the SAX interface provides what is required by the bundled parser to parse XML documents.

For more information on SAX, see http://www.saxproject.org/. For Javadoc documentation, see SAX (Simple API for XML)

Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 API

The DOM API is a platform- and language-neutral interface It allows programs and scripts to access and update the content, structure, and style of XML documents dynamically. DOM gives you access to the information stored in your XML document as a hierarchical object model, much like a tree with the document's root element as the tree's root node. Using the DOM interface, you can access different parts of XML documents, navigate through them, and make changes and additions to them.

When an application invokes a DOM parser, the parser processes the entire document, creating an in-memory object model, which the application can process in any fashion it chooses. The DOM approach is most useful for more complex documents because it does not require a developer to interpret every element.

For more information on DOM, see the DOM (Document Object Model) Level 2 Specification . For Javadoc documentation, see DOM (Document Object Model) .

W3C XML Namespaces 1.0 Recommendation

The following abstract is taken from the W3C XML Namespace Recommendation:

"XML namespaces provide a simple method for qualifying element and attribute names used in Extensible Markup Language documents by associating them with namespaces identified by Universal Resource Identifier (URI) references."

The XML Namespaces 1.0 Recommendation is available on the Internet at http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names/.

Java API for XML Processing (JAXP) 1.1

JAXP is Sun's Java API for XML parsing and transforming. JAXP provides basic support for parsing, manipulating, and transforming XML documents through a standardized set of Java platform APIs. Thus, applications that use JAXP to process XML documents are portable across platforms.

JAXP does not replace either the SAX or DOM API. Instead, it adds some convenience methods that are designed to make applications that use the SAX and DOM APIs portable.

JAXP 1.1 consists of the javax.xml.parsers and javax.xml.transform packages that contain the interfaces, classes, and methods for parsing and transforming XML data.

The JAXP specification is available on the Internet at http://java.sun.com/xml/. The JAXP Javadoc is available at http://java.sun.com/xml/jaxp/dist/1.1/docs/api/index.html.

Apache Xerces Java Parser API

The Apache Xerces Java Parser package includes the API documentation for SAX and DOM, the two most common interfaces for programming XML. In addition, the parser provides documentation for classes that are not part of the SAX and DOM APIs, but are useful for writing parser programs.

For more information about the Apache Xerces Java parser, refer to http://xml.apache.org/xerces-j/index.html. For Javadoc documentation, refer to Apache Xerces Java Parser

Apache Xalan XML Stylesheet Language Transformer (XSLT) API

The Apache Xalan-Java XSLT transformer is used for transforming XML documents. It implements the W3C Recommendation 16 November 1999 XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 1.0. XSLT is a stylesheet language for transforming XML documents into other XML documents, HTML documents, or other document types. The language includes the XSL Transformation vocabulary and XPath, a language for addressing parts of an XML document. An XSL stylesheet describes how to transform the tree of nodes in the XML input into another tree of nodes.

For more information about the Apache Xalan XSLT transformer, refer to http://xml.apache.org/xalan-j/index.html. For Javadoc documentation, refer to Apache Xalan XSLT Transformer .

Additional Resources

This section lists various resources that are available online to help you learn about programming with WebLogic XML:

- Code Examples

- Related WebLogic Documentation

- General XML Information

- Tutorials and Online Courses

- Other XML Specifications

Code Examples

XML code examples and supporting documentation are included in the WebLogic Server distribution at BEA Home\wlserver6.1\samples\examples\xml, where BEA Home is the directory in which the WebLogic Server software is installed.

Related WebLogic Documentation

- Programming WebLogic Web Services

- Programming WebLogic Enterprise JavaBeans

- Programming WebLogic JMS

- Programming WebLogic JSP

- Programming WebLogic HTTP Servlets

- Programming WebLogic Server for Wireless Services

General XML Information

- W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)

- XML.com

- XML FAQ

- XML.org, The XML Industry Portal .

- W3C: Extensible Stylesheet Language

Tutorials and Online Courses

- A Technical Introduction to XML

- XML Authoring Tutorial

- Working with XML and Java

- Tutorials for using the Java 2 platform and XML technology

- Developing XML Solutions with JavaServer Pages Technology

- XML, Java, and the Future of the Web

- Chapter 14 of the XML Bible: XSL Transformations

- XSL Tutorial by Miloslav Nic

- XML Schema Part 0: Primer

Other XML Specifications

- Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) 1.0 Specification

- JSR-000031 XML Data Binding Specification

- XML Path Language (XPath) Version 1.0 Specification

- XML Linking Language (XLink) Specification

- XML Pointer Language (XPointer) Specification

- XML Schema Part 1: Structures

- XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes

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