Re: XML Public Indentifier

[Rob Lugt <roblugt@elcel.com>]

Harden ZHU wrote

> I have some XML docs as
> <!DOCTYPE Catalog PUBLIC "-//PubCatalog" "http://www.xyz.com/catalog.dtd">
>
> I don't know how public indentifier works. Is "-//PubCatalog" a URI? And
> How parser find it and work with it?

Harden,

The public identifier is not a URI, but it is a string that may be used by
the XML parser to access the resource.  The XML 1.0 recommendation did not
specify how public identifiers should be used with the result that many xml
tools do not process them.

However, this situation is now changing for the better.  OASIS have created
a specification for a standard XML Catalog that can be used by the parser to
resolve public identifiers.  The OASIS web-page [1] contains details of the
specification as well as some tools that help you to use it.  If you are
using a Java SAX parser, then you will be interested in Normal Walsh's Java
Resolver Classes [2] that can be plugged into the popular java parsers.

Regards,

Rob

--
Rob Lugt
ElCel Technology
http://www.elcel.com

[1] http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/entity
[2] http://www.sun.com/xml/developers/resolver/