Re: [xml-dev] PSVI using existing infoset items

[Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@metalab.unc.edu>]

At 7:33 PM +0200 10/16/01, Eric van der Vlist wrote:

>Let's take a very simple example...
>
>XML:
><foo>
>  <bar>...</bar>
></foo>
>

>What I had in mind is something that could be processed exactly like the original document with some information added, something such as (very rough draft):
>
><foo xmlns:...>
>  <psvi:element type="complex" datatype="foo" whitespace="false"/>
>  <bar>
>    <psvi:element type="simple" datatype="xs:string"
>        primary="xs:string"
>        minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded" whitespace="false"/>
>  ...</bar>
></foo>
>

This is still too complicated. In particular, it changes the parentage of elements and tree structure of an XML document. An XSLT style sheet that operated on the original document would likely fail when applied to the PSVI document. What's needed here is a pure attribute solution so that PSVI information can be merged with the original document without changing its basic structure. For example,

<foo xmlns:psvi="..." xmlns:prefix="..." psvi:type="prefix:typeA">
  <bar psvi:type="prefix:typeB">
   ...
  </bar>
</foo>

Most applications that were designed to process the original document could also process the PSVI document without being rewritten.

I also don't think you need anything more than the qualified name for the type of each element. If an application wants details about the type, then it should look at the schema. 
-- 

+-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
| Elliotte Rusty Harold | elharo@metalab.unc.edu | Writer/Programmer |
+-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+ 
|          The XML Bible, 2nd Edition (Hungry Minds, 2001)           |
|              http://www.ibiblio.org/xml/books/bible2/              |
|   http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0764547607/cafeaulaitA/   |
+----------------------------------+---------------------------------+
|  Read Cafe au Lait for Java News:  http://www.cafeaulait.org/      | 
|  Read Cafe con Leche for XML News: http://www.ibiblio.org/xml/     |
+----------------------------------+---------------------------------+