Another Step Toward XML Content

[Ralph Ferris]

In yesterdays announcement (see ANNOUNCE: "HyBrick" Browser, V0.82) I said
that a "Document Group" sub-menu has been added in the "XLink/XPointer"
menu. I've now installed some files on our Web server that help demonstrate
the significance of this feature (that is, in addition to the "Topic Map"
sample provided with the distribution). 

The "content" file is James Clark's paper on "XML Namespaces." This paper
is identical in content to James' original paper. James has been kind
enough to let me use it for the demo. The only modifications are to the
links. 

Running the Demo

If your network connections allow it (and again I have to emphasize that
HyBrick doesn't yet support proxy servers, so this demo work for everyone),
download the file by pointing HyBrick at:

http://www.fsc.fujitsu.com/hybrick/html/xmlns.xml

If all goes well, the file will come up with two areas highlighted in blue:
- the title "XML Namespaces"
- the phrase "XML Namespaces Recommendation" in the first sentence

Click on either of these. A dialog box will then appear, asking you for the
URL of the style sheet to use. Enter:

http://www.fsc.fujitsu.com/hybrick/html/styles/HTML32.dsl

Again, if all goes well, the file will start to be displayed, but an error
box will appear. Minus the preamble, these error messages will say:

E: invalid value for "entity-system-id" characteristic
E: 1st argument for primitive "notation-system-id" of wrong type: "#f" not
a string

Click OK. You will see the W3C "Namespaces in XML" recommendation paper
displayed. The W3C's logo won't appear though. Why? That's what the error
messages were all about. HTML is being processed as XML (using a DSSSL
style sheet and an SGML "engine"!). That means NOTATION and ENTITY
declarations are needed for the logo graphic. Of course, these aren't in
the doc, hence the error messages.

Notice that this doc doesn't contain any back links to the original
document. Also, "HyBrick" doesn't provide a "back" button. So, short of
starting all over again, how do you get back to the original doc (James'
paper)? 

Answer:

- Right click *anywhere* in the document. 
A menu will appear with the choices "ShowXPointer" and "Document Group."
- Select "Document Group"
A menu will appear with three choices:
1) xmlns.xml
2) Full URL to xmlns.xml
3) Full URL of the current document

Selecting either 1) or 2) will return you to the original document.

The observant will find a number of issues here. For example, the links in
the XML Namespaces Recommendation aren't "live." (Reason: the HREF
attributes are in uppercase.) I'm sure others will occur to people. These
issues can be pursued in future discussion. Meanwhile, I hope a significant
number of people will be able to run the demo and see it as another step
toward bringing XML content to the Web.


Best regards,

Ralph E. Ferris
Fujitsu Software Corporation
 


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