Topic: new to xml

I decided to make a perl script using xml to store the data for bookmarks (see this thread ) I haven't used xml before, and thought now is a good time to learn. I created an xml file, and it doesn't have any errors when veiwing, so:

1) Did I write it correctly?

2) Do I need a <bookmarkentry></bookmarkentry> to surround the xml I wrote? (a seperate tag from
menuitem )

3)Should/do I need to write a DTD?

example bookmark directory structure:

/bookmarks

  /programming

    /cpp

      link1

      link2

      /tut

        tut link1

        tut link2

    /perl

      p link1

      p link2

  link just in programming

xml of the above sample:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>

<menuitem title="programming">

  <menuitem title="cpp">

    <link url="#">link1</link>

    <link url="#">link2</link>

    <menuitem title="tut">

      <link url="#">tut link1</link>

      <link url="#">tut link2</link>

    </menuitem>

  </menuitem>

  <menuitem title="perl">

    <link url="#">p link1</link>

    <link url="#">p link2</link>

  </menuitem>

  <link url="#">general programming</link>

</menuitem>

thank you,
--monkey

i think the two different items called "menuitem title" may lend itself to some trouble.

Later,

C:\


~Binary is best~

quote:

---

1) Did I write it correctly?

---

Define "correctly".
It's well-formed, yes.

quote:

---

2) Do I need a <bookmarkentry></bookmarkentry> to surround the xml I wrote? (a seperate tag from
menuitem )

---

No, it's not needed but it would be a little more logical to have a different name for the root element.
If I would do a bookmark XML file I would probably have something like the following structure

<bookmarks>

	<dir>programming

		<dir>cpp

			<bookmark href="">link 1</bookmark>

			<bookmark href="">link 2</bookmark>

		</dir>

		<dir>tut

			<bookmark href="">link 1</bookmark>

			<bookmark href="">link 2</bookmark>

		</dir>

	</dir>

	<dir>perl

		<bookmark href="">link 1</bookmark>

		<bookmark href="">link 2</bookmark>

	</dir>

	<bookmark href="">link just in programming</bookmark>

</bookmarks>

(Notice that I didn't put too much thought in that, and maybe some things should be changed. Maybe the directory name should be inside an element too.)

quote:

---

3)Should/do I need to write a DTD?

---

Shouldn't be needed. It's up to you, if you want to check if your document validates.
On the other hand, it shouldn't be that hard.

[This message has been edited by HZR (edited 01-07-2004).]

HZR: I'm a little rusty at XSLT and XML parsing, but wouldnt your structure return cpplink 1link 2 as value-of the bookmarks[1]/dir[1]/dir[1] XPATH ?

That is probably true poi, and I'm rustier than you
So, putting the dir name in an element is probably a good idea (I wouldn't do something like <dir title="cpp"> ).

Is there something wrong with the word "title"? If I understand this is wrong:

<menuitem title="cpp">

and this is right:

<menuitem name="cpp">

No, the reason I wouldn't use title="cpp", is that "cpp" should be part of the content IMO.