XOM API for Processing XML with Java

[Elliotte Harold <elharo AT metalab.unc.edu>]

luca wrote:


> mmm. Unfortunately I don't control the XML document. This is always
> about the same issue of using XOM to parse WML/XHTML-MP mark-up
> and extract img references. There is not much use for a DTD for me.
> There must be an easy way to tell XOM (or whatever lies beneath XOM)
> to ignore DTDs.

There is not. This is a deliberate design decision. In my opinion, 
always processing the full DTD is the safest option for working with 
XML. It's the 80/20 cut, I made.


> Generally speaking the idea of making the well-functioning
> of a software system dependent on a resource out of one's control
> does not seem wise to me and I definitely want to avoid this situation
> in my system.

I agree. My response is that this design flaw is built into XML. XOM 
faithfully models XML, including its warts and ugly parts like the 
necessity of the external DTD subset in order to guarantee that you 
receive the document's full and correct information content. External 
DTD subsets can affect:

1. Default attribute values
2. Entity replacement text
3. Attribute normalization


--
Elliotte Rusty Harold
elharo AT metalab.unc.edu