02INT_XMLConcepts

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2Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Module 2: XML Concepts

Integrat ion Siebel Ap pl icat ions


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2 of 20Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Module Objectives

After completing this module you will be able to:

Describe the role of XML in application integration

Identify tags, elements, and attributes in an XML

document

Examine how structure of an XML documents can be

specified Explain the purposes of namespaces

Why you need to know:

XML documents are used for the exchange of data for

many integration solutions


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Integration Challenge

Application integration involves exchanging data among multiple

applications Choices for type:

Binary

Character-based

Choices for content:

Data values only Data values plus tags that describe the data items

Siebel applications typically exchange data in the form of XML

documents


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XML = Extensible Markup Language

Is a text-based language syntax with user-definable tags

Describe the nature and structure of information

Do not describe the presentation of the data

Is well suited for describing hierarchically related data

Provides a universal syntax for exchanging data among

applications

Platform-independent

Operating systemindependent

Database-independent

Vendor-neutral language

Coordinated by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Widely supported


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XML Documents

Contains one or more elements

Are delimited by start and end tags that enclose content Name in tag is known as an element type

Might include one or more attribute specifications

Is a name-value pair immediately following a start tag

The value is a string in quotation marks

Might include additional elements

Start tag

End tag

Attribute

Element


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XML Elements

Types of elements

Root: the element that contains all other elements

Parent: an element that contains other elements

Child: element contained within another element

Root

start tag

Root

end tag

Is child element of

contact

Is parent of home

and cell


7/197 of 20Copyright 2007, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Comparison of XML and HTML

XML documents contain tags that specify the nature and

relationship of content items

Tags are extensible (additional tags can be defined by users)

HTML documents contain tags that specify how the content is

rendered in a browser

Tags are predefined and not extensible

John Smith

,

member since 1998

,

HTML Example

John Smith

member since 1998



Definition of XML Documents

Applications receiving XML documents:

Need to understand the structure of the document

Might want to verify that the document is correctly constructed

XML documents can be defined by:

Document Type Definition (DTD)

XML Schema Definition (XSD)

And so forth



Document Type Definition (DTD)

Defines the element names, parent/child relationships, and

attributes in a class of XML documents

Is not an XML document itself



XML Schema Definition (XSD)

Defines the element names, parent/child relationships, and

attributes in a class of XML documents

Is written in XML itself

Does not require intermediate processing

Can be used with other XML-based tools

For instance some XML tools allow creating correct XML documents from

an XSD



Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL)

Is a language used to specify how an XML document should be

displayed to a user

Based on rules that specify how to display elements of a given

element type

XML

document

Result of an XSL

transformations



XSL Transformation (XSLT)

Specifies how to transform an XML document into an XML

document with a different structure

Is based on XSL

Source XML

document

Target XML

document



XSL Transformation (XSLT) Continued

Is used in integration applications to map (transform) data from

source to target applications



Names in XML Documents

Names of element types and attributes can be duplicated within

a single XML document or across multiple XML documents

Need to distinguish duplicate names with different meanings

Both documents have

element type of title



XML Namespace

Is a collection of element types and attribute names that are

unique

Has a name itself that is unique among all XML namespaces

Recommended practice is to base namespace name on your

organizations url

Another namespace:

http://www.abc.com/books

One namespace:

http://www.abc.com/contacts


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Summary of XML

XML: format for data exchanged among applications

Used extensively in EAI and UAN XSD/DTD: specifies the structure of the data exchanged

Used extensively in UAN; somewhat in EAI

XSLT: specifies how to transform one data structure into

another

Used extensively in UAN

XML namespace: defines the uniqueness of a set of element

and attribute names

Appear in most XSD documents

Part of the configuration of Siebel Web services



Summary

This module showed you how to:

Describe the role of XML in application integration

Identify tags, elements, and attributes in an XML

document

Examine how structure of an XML documents can be

specified Explain the purposes of namespaces