What XML vocabulary is used in Skribenta?
Skribenta is based on a number of core concepts.
Content is managed in XML
XML is a W3C recommendation that has become a de facto standard for storing and transferring structured information. As a storage format, XML has several advantages.
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XML is supplier-independent.
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XML is future-proof.
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XML-based information can be easily generated from different sources and converted between different information formats with standard tools.
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XML supports different world character sets with standard Unicode.
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XML separates content and layout which dramatically increases the possibility of information reuse.
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XML is a perfect base for publishing to different formats, such as PDF, HTML or online help.
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XML is a hierarchical format which makes it possible to present the information from the top level down to the finer details.
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XML supports links (with the standard XLink) which helps the reader to find referenced information.
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XML is a format that the whole world supports, with new tools and services.
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New standards based on XML are continuously being developed.
Working with XML implies working with the structure and content, not the layout. Hence, the writer can focus solely on writing a well-structured and well-written document. The layout is handled separately by a style sheet.
When choosing XML as the storage format, a certain DTD (Document Type Definition or Scheme) is required. A DTD defines the concepts of the format (e.g. section and paragraph for sections and text parts) and rules for how the structure may be formed (e.g. that a section may contain a paragraph but not the opposite).
XML defines a hierarchical tree. Each node in the tree contains an element or text. An element has a name (e.g. paragraph) and may have attributes with values (e.g. id = "MyID"). The text follows the Unicode standard.
Content is organized according to a flexible, yet powerful DTD
A Document Type Definition (DTD) defines which elements, attributes and entities are allowed in a document in the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). Since XML is an SGML-based language, a DTD is required for an XML file.
The DTD of Skribenta is called FlexDTD. FlexDTD has so-called generic elements, which makes the DTD flexible (hence the name). A generic element can be classed to be more specific via an attribute, which requires no change in the DTD.
FlexDTD is a "kind" DTD; it is rather permissive. For example, FlexDTD does not limit the number of chapter levels and does not prohibit that, for example, a table is put in a footnote. Basic rules are declared in the DTD - more specific validation is handled by the style sheets depending on limitations in the expected result.