include file problem: namespaces?

[maxwell]

I'm having a problem using the XML "include" mechanism, which I think
has to do with namespaces.

I have an XML file that has a lot of repetition--a sequence of elements
that appear multiple times. My thought was to copy this sequence into
a separate file, then use an entity defn to refer to that separate
file:

<!ENTITY ThirdPersonAllB utTense SYSTEM "3PersNotTense. xml">

and replace the sequences with &ThirdPersonAll ButTense;. (There's no
particular reason this sequence of elements should go into an
*external* file, but I can't figure out how to define an entity as a
sequence of elements in any other way.)

But I get an error msg from xmllint:

Element 'FeatureValueSe t': This element is not expected.
Expected is (
{http://lodl.ldc.upenn. edu/ParadigmDefn.xs d}FeatureValueS et ).

If I understand this correctly, it's saying it expected to find a
namespace identifier in front of the element name (and it's suggesting
a URL as the identifier). This namespace is defined as the default
namespace in the "calling" file, i.e.

<ParadigmDefn s xmlns ="http://lodl.ldc.upenn. edu/ParadigmDefn.xs d"
...>

There is no namespace definition in the included file. (Should there
be? How?)

I'm unsure why it wants this identifier (if that is indeed what this
error msg means). My concept of what this external entity inclusion
does, is that it just copies the contents of the external file in place
of the entity. Obviously my concept is wrong, or I wouldn't be getting
an error msg, but I'm unsure why.

Apologies if the above is unclear/ uses the wrong terminology...

[Richard Tobin]

In article <11************ **********@i40g 2000cwc.googleg roups.com>,
<ma*****@ldc.up enn.edu> wrote:

I have an XML file that has a lot of repetition--a sequence of elements
that appear multiple times. My thought was to copy this sequence into
a separate file, then use an entity defn to refer to that separate
file:

<!ENTITY ThirdPersonAllB utTense SYSTEM "3PersNotTense. xml">

and replace the sequences with &ThirdPersonAll ButTense;. (There's no
particular reason this sequence of elements should go into an
*external* file, but I can't figure out how to define an entity as a
sequence of elements in any other way.)
You can use an internal entity equally well, for example:

<!DOCTYPE foo [
<!ELEMENT foo (bar*)>
<!ELEMENT bar EMPTY>
<!ENTITY lots-of-bars "
<bar/>
<bar/>
<bar/>
<bar/>
<bar/>
">
]>
<foo>
&lots-of-bars;
&lots-of-bars;
</foo>
Element 'FeatureValueSe t': This element is not expected.
Expected is (
{http://lodl.ldc.upenn. edu/ParadigmDefn.xs d}FeatureValueS et ).

If I understand this correctly, it's saying it expected to find a
namespace identifier in front of the element name (and it's suggesting
a URL as the identifier). This namespace is defined as the default
namespace in the "calling" file, i.e.

<ParadigmDefn s xmlns ="http://lodl.ldc.upenn. edu/ParadigmDefn.xs d"
...>

There is no namespace definition in the included file. (Should there
be? How?)

I'm unsure why it wants this identifier (if that is indeed what this
error msg means). My concept of what this external entity inclusion
does, is that it just copies the contents of the external file in place
of the entity.

That's right; entites work at a textual level before namespace processing.
I don't know why you're getting this error message. Perhaps you could
post a complete cut-down example so others can check it.

-- Richard

[maxwell]

> Perhaps you could post a complete cut-down

example so others can check it.

I was afraid you were going to say that :-). The file is (by my
standards at least) large and complex, so it will take me awhile to
trim it down to s.t. manageable. But I'll try, and thanks for the
suggestion!

[maxwell]

OK, I trimmed it down. Unfortunately, I'm posting on Google groups, so
I can't attach files (maybe that's a no-no here anyway?). So, here
goes:

First, the schema, which I have in a file BugSchema.xsd:
---------------BugSchema.xsd-----------------
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsd:schema xmlns:xsd ="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
targetNamespace
="http://lodl.ldc.upenn. edu/ParadigmDefn.xs d"
xmlns
="http://lodl.ldc.upenn. edu/ParadigmDefn.xs d"
elementFormDefa ult ="qualified"

<xsd:element name="ParadigmD efns">
<xsd:complexTyp e>
<xsd:sequence >
<xsd:element ref="Paradigm" minOccurs="1"
maxOccurs="unbo unded"/>
</xsd:sequence>
</xsd:complexType >
</xsd:element>

<xsd:element name="Paradigm" >
<xsd:complexTyp e>
<xsd:sequence >
<xsd:element ref="FeatureVal ueSet" minOccurs="1"
maxOccurs="unbo unded"/>
</xsd:sequence>
</xsd:complexType >
</xsd:element>

<xsd:element name="FeatureVa lueSet">
</xsd:element>
</xsd:schema>
-----------------------------------------------------------

Next, the file to be validated against that schema, Bug.Defn.xml:
------------------Bug.Defn.xml--------------------
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>

<!DOCTYPE ParadigmDefn
[<!ENTITY Inclusion SYSTEM "IncludeBug.xml ">]
<ParadigmDefn s xmlns
="http://lodl.ldc.upenn. edu/ParadigmDefn.xs d"
xmlns:xsi
="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocat ion="http://lodl.ldc.upenn. edu
ParadigmDefn.xs d"

<Paradigm>
<!--If the ff. '&Inclusion;' is commented out, this file
validates.-->
&Inclusion;
<FeatureValueSe t></FeatureValueSet >
</Paradigm>
</ParadigmDefns>
-----------------------------------------

And finally, the "include" file, IncludeBug.xml:
--------------------IncludeBug.xml---------------
<FeatureValueSe t></FeatureValueSet >
-----------------------------------------

You'll notice that this line is identical to the line that appears
immediately below the '&Inclusion;' ; the latter line does not cause any
problem, if the '&Inclusion;' is commented out.

The error msg happens (if the inclusion is not commented out) when I
run the ff. cmd:

xmllint --noout --noent --schema BugSchema.xsd TestSuite/bug.Defn.xml

Specifically, the error msg is:

Element 'FeatureValueSe t': This element is not expected. Expected is
( {http://lodl.ldc.upenn. edu/ParadigmDefn.xs d}FeatureValueS et ).
TestSuite/bug.Defn.xml fails to validate

I'm running this under CygWin. xmllint reports "using libxml version
20622 of the in-memory document" (whatever that means--sounds like an
odd version #, but...)

Thanks for any suggestions!

[Joe Kesselman]

Remember, inclusion in XML is semantic, NOT string based.

Your external entity doesn't define a default namespace, nor does it use
prefixes bound to a namespace. Ergo, its elements are NOT in any
namespace. Ergo, they are NOT the same as the ones in the namespace.
That's exactly what the error message is telling you:

Element 'FeatureValueSe t': This element is not expected. Expected is
( {http://lodl.ldc.upenn. edu/ParadigmDefn.xs d}FeatureValueS et ).
TestSuite/bug.Defn.xml fails to validate

You provided a <FeatureValueSe t>; it expected a
<FeatureValueSe t xmlns="http://lodl.ldc.upenn. edu/ParadigmDefn.xs d">, or
<foo:FeatureVal ueSet
xmlns:foo="http ://lodl.ldc.upenn. edu/ParadigmDefn.xs d">, or something
equivalent.

Fix your external entity.

--
() ASCII Ribbon Campaign | Joe Kesselman
/\ Stamp out HTML e-mail! | System architexture and kinetic poetry

[maxwell]

> Remember, inclusion in XML is semantic, NOT string based.

That definitely seems to be what's happening, but it's not what I
expected from statements like
You can specify an entity that has text defined external to
the document by using the SYSTEM keyword...
In this case, the XML processor will parse the content of
that file as if its content had been typed at the location
of the entity reference.
(--http://www.javacommerc e.com/displaypage.jsp ?name=entities. sql&id=18238)

You provided a <FeatureValueSe t>; it expected a
<FeatureValueSe t xmlns="http://lodl.ldc.upenn. edu/ParadigmDefn.xs d">, or
<foo:FeatureVal ueSet
xmlns:foo="http ://lodl.ldc.upenn. edu/ParadigmDefn.xs d">, or something
equivalent.

Fix your external entity.

In the actual file (not the cut down one that I posted here), there is
a long series of these entities
<FeatureValueSe t>foo</FeatureValueSet >
<FeatureValueSe t>bar</FeatureValueSet >
<FeatureValueSe t>baz</FeatureValueSet >
etc., and I want to splice that *sequence* in at several points. I can
put in the xmlns in each one of these entites, but is there a way in
this external file of specifying the xmlns once, rather than repeatedly?

[Joseph Kesselman]

ma*****@ldc.upe nn.edu wrote:

Remember, inclusion in XML is semantic, NOT string based.

That definitely seems to be what's happening, but it's not what I
expected from statements like

Hmmmm. Let me think about that.

Part of the problem here is that namespaces were introduced after the
XML spec, so you get into odd situations where DTD behavior is
non-namespace-aware but later layers *are* namespace aware.

So I think I may be wrong; the inclusion -- because external entities
are defined by the XML spec rather than XML-plus-namespaces -- probably
should have occurred syntactically, and probably should have picked up
the namespace context at the point where you brought it in.

Interesting. I need to dig into this one more deeply to really convince
myself, and I should try it in a parser I trust to see what it thinks
should happen.

Which parser are you using?

--
Joe Kesselman / Beware the fury of a patient man. -- John Dryden

[maxwell]

Actually, I haven't tested this with any application/ parser, only with
xmllint.

[Joseph Kesselman]

ma*****@ldc.upe nn.edu wrote:

Actually, I haven't tested this with any application/ parser, only with
xmllint.

Not familiar with it. It may be wrong...

--
Joe Kesselman / Beware the fury of a patient man. -- John Dryden

[maxwell]

>> Actually, I haven't tested this with any application/ parser, only with

xmllint.

Not familiar with it. It may be wrong...

Could be. It uses xmllib, for what that's worth.
http://xmlsoft.org/xmllint.html is a man page, but I get the executable
in the CygWin package.

Can you suggest another (better!) parser that I could use to validate
the xml file against my schema?