Hallo, Thomas Grill hat gesagt: // Thomas Grill wrote:
could one XML expert give me a hand and have a look at the following XML structure? I have the feeling that the value item using "key" as an attribute isn't really well-done, as well as the the way how hierarchies are implemented using the "dir" item. Is there a common way to define hierarchies in XML land?
I thought about this a bit from the view of not exactly an XML expert, but maybe an HTML expert. In HTML I would see an analogy to lists. Lists in html consist of list declarations and list item declarations. List items may contain lists themselves to build up hierarchies:
<ul> <li>First list item</li> <li>Second list item <ul> <li>First nested item</li> <li>Second nested item</li> <li>Third nested item</li> </ul> </li> <li>Third list item</li> <li>Fourth list item</li> </ul>
(I also considered definition lists, but they are not good here IMO.)
Using this approach directly in the pool.xml it would look like this:
<pool> <dir key="outer_list"> <value key="a_symbol">0</value> <value key="b_symbol">89</value>
<!-- change here! Not valid with current DTD because of missing key! -->
<value>
<dir key="subfolder">
<value key="subkey">with a list inside</value>
</dir>
<!-- change 2 -->
</value>
</dir>
</pool>
I think if following the <li> example it would be much better to introduce a new attribute-less <de> ("dir entry") or <entry> tag, that is the only tag possible in a <dir> and in turn may contain <dir> and <value> items:
<pool> <dir key="outer_list"> <de><value key="a_symbol">0</value></de> <de><value key="b_symbol">89</value></de>
<de>
<dir key="subfolder">
<de><value key="subkey">with a list inside</value></de>
</dir>
</de>
</dir>
</pool>
Specifying the key name as an attribute is fine with me. For clarification maybe different names for dir-keys and value-keys might be more readable.
Just my 2 ct.
ciao
Frank Barknecht _ ______footils.org__