xml-dev - Q: Using XML entities for href's

[Steffen Rodig <rodig@sdm.de>]

In my xml based application I want to write xml documents with some
kind of indirect links, since I don't know the exact location of a
link target at the time a document is created and stored into a
repository. I got the idea to use the entity concept of xml for doing
this, since in my understanding entities can be used as virtual
identifiers for physical locations. So at the time I request a
document from the repository I'd like to include some entity
definitions into the internal DTD of a document. Then it would
look like this:

<?XML VERSION="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE CP-Document PUBLIC "-//SDM SHORE//DTD CP-Document//EN" [
<!ENTITY aRef SYSTEM "http://aServer/aDocument#anElement">
]>
...
<aTag xml-link=simple href=aRef>content</aTag>
...

Does this idea still conform to the xml concept? Even more important:
Would this work?

If not, does anyone have an idea of how to solve the following problem:

1. At creation time of a xml document I only know symbolic identifiers for
   the link targets. The documents need to be stored into a repository
   without resolving the links. (however, the link target identifiers are
   unambiguous over the whole repository)
2. After the import of all documents into the repository, I am able to
   resolve the link targets.
3. At the time of exporting the documents from the repository (and displaying
   them in a browser), I need to exchange the symbolic identifiers with
   the real ones for navigation.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Best regards,
--
Steffen Rodig                |s  |d &|m  |  software design & management
Steffen.Rodig@sdm.de         |   |   |   |  GmbH & Co. KG
http://www.sdm.de/           |   |   |   |  Thomas-Dehler-Str. 27
Tel/Fax +49-89-63812-395/490 |   |   |   |  81737 Muenchen, Germany

                  Leben ist das, was einem zustoesst,
         waehrend man auf die Erfuellung seiner Traeume wartet.


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