IDREF to external file

[Neil Zanella]

Hello,

Is it possible to specify an IDREF to an element to an external file in a DTD? I really need this feature cause that way I can do a good job of validating the XML files I am using.

Thanks,

Neil

 

[Keith M. Corbett]

Hello,

Is it possible to specify an IDREF to an element to an external file in a DTD? I really need this feature cause that way I can do a good job of validating the XML files I am using.

If what you want is to validate an XML instance containing IDREF attribute values that refer to ID attribute values in a separate XML instance, then no, that is not permitted by the XML spec. (See "Validity constraint:
IDREF")

You could cause a file containing ID attributes to be included in the XML instance containing IDREF attributes. Depending on file sizes, this may or may not be desirable for reasons such as performance or memory usage.

/kmc

 

[Andy Dingley]

Is it possible to specify an IDREF to an element to an external file in a DTD?

No, look at RDF for examples of the issues that arise from this. It's not an easy problem to solve simply.