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built–in datatype
the basic types for modelling data that are part of the W3C XML Schema language including xsd:string, xsd:decimal and xsd:dateTime. For a complete list, refer to www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2/#built-in-datatypes [External website]
character encoding
A set of characters (letters in the Latin alphabet or Chinese ideograms, for example) and a corresponding set of codes (numbers) that represent those characters. Examples include UTF-8, ASCII and Latin-1 (or ISO-8859-1).
compositor
A constructor in the W3C XML Schema language that describes groups of elements and how they may be combined. This includes
<xsd:all>, <xsd:choice> and <xsd:sequence>
complex type
A user–defined type in W3C XML Schema language that describes an element with a content model which is more complicated than plain text. That is, it contains other elements or a mixture of elements and plain text.
document type definition (or DTD)
A formal specification of the allowed structure and content of an XML document. DTDs can reside in a separate file or appear inline as part of the document type (DOCTYPE) declaration at the head of an XML document. W3C XML Schema is the preferred language for document definition in the UK public sector and should be used instead of DTDs in all new developments.
domain-specific schema
XML schema on GovTalk that is tied to a specific project, as distinct from schemas which describe generic data items which form part of the UK Government Data Standards Catalogue (GDSC)
equivalence relationship
Terms that exhibit an equivalence relationship refer to the same concept. For example, dog and canine are considered to be equivalent.
facet
XML schema on GovTalk that is tied to a specific project, as distinct from schemas which describe generic data items which form part of the UK Government Data Standards Catalogue (GDSC)
instance document
XML document which validates against a given schema
knowledge representation
The addition of metadata to content in order to add a layer of meaning. This term is used in connection with the Semantic Web.
markup
A type of computer language which describes the structure and appearance of an electronic document
namespace
An abstract container for grouping elements and attributes of a specific XML–based markup language
news reader (or news aggregator)
Software for subscribing to, receiving and displaying RSS feeds
nodeset
Returned by XPath expressions – a collection of nodes in a tree-based representation of an XML document
ontology
Taxonomy (classification) of terms and definition of the relationships that exist between those terms. This is a key component of the Semantic Web.
parsed character data
(or PCDATA) data type used in DTDs for representing plain text
predicate
Expression in XPath Language to further refine the nodeset returned
processing instruction
An instruction from an XML document to a parser, or application reading an XML document, to carry out a specific task. For example, the <?xml-styelsheet?> processing instruction tells an application to render the document using the given stylesheet.
public key
Type of cryptography which depends on the combination of a private key (kept secret) and a public key (publicly distributed) to encrypt, decrypt and digitally sign secure documents
reusable datatype
Schema component which may be used by another schema to save development time and promote interoperability
simple type
Data type in W3C XML Schema language that contains plain text. Simple types cannot have attributes or contain further elements.
upper camel case
Naming convention which capitalises the first letter of every word, for example, PersonFamilyName or AmountSterlingStructure. This is the standard naming convention for UK public sector schema development.
valid
An XML document is said to be valid if it matches the definition provided by a schema
validating parser
Parser which can validate an XML document against a schema
web service
Software application that makes some or all of its functionality available over the web
well–formed An XML document is said to be well–formed if it matches the syntax specification defined by the W3C XML Recommendation
XML application
XML–based markup language dealing with a specific subject area – not a software application – for example SVG, GML or RSS
XML parser
Computer program that reads an XML document
XML rendering
The process of transforming an XML document into a form that may be presented to a user
XML vocabulary
Set of element and attribute names that form part of an XML-based markup language
XSL–FO processor
Software that can render Formatting Objects documents into displayable form such as PDF
XSLT processor
Software that can transform XML documents into HTML, plain text or other XML documents using XSLT stylesheets
