XML
Standards News;
DOM Level 2 Becomes Proposed Recommendation in May!
DOM Level 2 Becomes a Proposed Recommendation
This spring we have one new Proposed
Recommendation from W3C:
The Document Object Model (DOM) is an application programming interface (API)
for HTML and XML documents. The DOM defines the logical structure of these documents and
the way to access and manipulate the document. In HTML, the term document
refers to the Web page. But in XML, a document often is a
representation of structured information rather than a traditional
document. In either case, the DOM may be used to manage this data.
DOM enables programmers to build documents, navigate
their structure, and add, modify, or delete elements and content. Almost
anything found
in an HTML or XML document can be accessed, changed, deleted, or added using the
Document Object Model. ( DOM interfaces
for the XML internal and external subsets have not yet been specified.)
One important objective for the Document Object Model
is to provide a standard programming interface that can be used in a wide
variety of environments and applications. The DOM is designed to be used with
any programming language.
The newest Proposed Recommendation, Document Object Model Level 2,
provides a platform-
and language-neutral interface that allows programs and scripts to dynamically
access and update the content, structure and style of documents. The Document
Object Model Level 2 builds on the Document Object Model Level 1.
The DOM Level 2 is made of a set of specialized
interfaces dedicated to XML, HTML,
an abstract view, generic style sheets, Cascading Style Sheets, Events,
traversing the document structure, and a Range object. With these new
interfaces, programmers can create and
manipulate the structure and contents of a document and a set of optional
modules. These modules contain specialized interfaces
A compliant implementation of the DOM must implement all of the fundamental
interfaces in the Core chapter with the semantics as defined. It must also implement at least one of the HTML DOM and the extended (XML) interfaces with
the semantics as defined. The other modules are optional.
Other May Working Drafts
In May a number of working drafts
were posted by W3C as well. May working drafts included:
The XML Query Data Model
The XML Query Data Model defines the W3C XML Query Data
Model. It is the foundation
of the W3C XML Query Algebra (to be specified in a
future document). Together, the XML Query documents are intended to provide a precise
semantics of the XML Query Language.
The XML Query Data Model defines formally the information contained in the
input to an XML Query processor. An XML Query processor will
evaluate a query based on an instance of the XML Query Data Model. The document provides a precise and formal definition of how values in
the XML Query Data Model are constructed and accessed. These operators
will form the
foundation of the XML Query Algebra, and therefore, require a more formal
treatment than is provided in the definitions of the XPath and Infoset data
models. Wherever the XML Query Data Model differs from
that of XPath, the working group provides a formal definition of the mapping from the
Infoset to the XML Query Data Model
The XML Query Data Model is defined using a functional notation. This notation
was selected because it is simple and permits a precise and concise definition of the data
model. The notation has
a functional style, but can be realized in a
variety of programming languages and styles, for example, as object classes and
methods in an object-oriented language
Return
to TOC
