Understanding XmlDoc Classes

The Extended Markup Language (XML) describes a class of data objects called XML documents. It also partially describes the behavior of computer programs which process them. The XmlDoc class is used to create and manipulate XML data.

The Extended Markup Language (XML) is a method for putting structured data in a text file. Like HTML, XML uses tags, that is, text delimited by brackets (< and >). However, HTML specifies what each tag is, and how it's supposed to be displayed in a browser. XML uses tags only to delimit data. The interpretation of that data is entirely up to the application.

For example, <UL> in HTML specifies an unordered (bulleted) list. However, with XML, it could specify an underlined link.

Each XML document has both a physical and a logical structure:

• Physically, the XML document is composed of units called entities. A document begins in a "root" or document entity.

• Logically, the XML document is composed of declarations, elements, comments, character references, and processing instructions

The CreateXmlDoc function creates an XmlDoc object. An XmlDoc is composed of XmlNode objects. Each XmlNode represents an XML document entity. You can use PeopleCode to create the following types of entities:

• Attribute (specified both by a name and a NamespaceURI)

• CDATA Section

• Comment

• Element

• Entity References

• Process Instruction

• Text