XML via the Document Object Model: A Preliminary Course
December 21, 1998
|
XML is a powerful, flexible, and intuitive way to structure
data but it does
not, by itself, process, manipulate, or output data as such.
|
XML
is the new kid on the block, a technology which
promises great potential for web development, though still
unproven in widespread application. While XML is a powerful,
flexible, and intuitive way to structure data, it
does not, by itself, process the data as such. One technology
which can be employed to process XML data is the
Document Object Model,
a construct which provides
programmatic access to the components of an XML document. Using
a DOM-supporting programming language, such as the lightweight
JavaScript
scripting language, one can maneuver
within the XML data to perform queries, processing, or modifications.
But there's a catch: At the time of writing, only Internet
Explorer 5 beta 2 contains internal support for exposing
XML data via the Document Object Model. While we can be
relatively sure that this support will follow through the
release version of MSIE 5, the question of how similarly
Netscape 5 will reflect XML via its DOM remains an unknown.
Technology instruction is always a process of blazing paths
across quicksand, but perhaps moreso at this early
stage of XML's maturity.
Caveats aside, it is worthwhile to begin exploring XML
processing even at this early stage. Traversing XML via
the DOM requires a combination of conceptual understanding
and syntactical execution; the latter may change with
revisions of technology but the former will lead to mastery.
So, that's where we'll begin.
This article must assume a working knowledge of an
object-oriented programming language which accesses the Document
Object Model; although most of our examples are language-neutral,
we'll consider JavaScript to be the base of reference.
Introductions to both JavaScript and XML can be found right
here at the WDVL, including
"JavaScript Tutorial for Programmers" and
"Introduction to XML".
We will briefly summarize each as a memory refreshment.
Contents:
Refresher: Object-oriented programming; e.g. JavaScript
|
