1. XML processing in ColdFusion MX
Everything you wanted to know about XML, but were afraid to ask
October 2006 Jaxfusion User Group

2. About the Presenter David Fekke Working with XML 1999
Lead for Vurv HR-XML API

3. Covered in this presentation
Properly formed XML
ColdFusion XML Tags and functions
XPath queries
XML XSDs and Validation
XML Namespaces
DOM vs. Streaming parsers
StAX API

4. XML eXtensible Markup Language Originated from SGML W3C standard
More versatile then Flat files

5. XML Syntax XML declaration
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
Must have one root tag
<pre:roottag> </pre:roottag>
All tags must have closing tag.
<br />: single tags can have forward slash at the end
<tag name=“value” /> tags can have attributes

6. Pre MX XML features
WDDX
SOXML custom tag, windows only

7. ColdFusion MX 6
CFXML tag turns serialized XML into a ColdFusion object
XMLParse() function
ColdFusion XML Object works like series of structures and arrays
XMLSearch() function
XMLSearch Uses XPath queries to return array of XML nodes

8. XML Check functions IsXML IsXmlDoc IsWDDX IsXmlAttribute IsXmlElem
IsXmlNode
IsXmlRoot

9. XML editing functions XmlNew() XmlChildPos() XmlTransform()
XmlElemNew()

10. ColdFusion MX 7 Functions
XmlGetNodeType()
XmlValidate()

11. XPath queries
Provides a way to pull the elements you need without having to iterate through the entire DOM
/rootelement/parent/childelement
//childelement
/rootelement/parent[childelement = “foo”]
Used with XSLT templates

12. XML Validation Define XML with DTD or XSD
XSD preferred method for validation
XSD uses an XML format
Allows for strict and custom datatypes
Allows for pattern recognition

13. <xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xs:element name="FirstName" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="LastName" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="Age" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="customer">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element ref="FirstName" />
<xs:element ref="LastName" />
<xs:element ref="Age" />
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name="customers">
<xs:element ref="customer" maxOccurs="unbounded" />
</xs:schema>

14. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<customers>
<customer>
<FirstName>Dwight</FirstName>
<LastName>Mercer</LastName>
<Age>32</Age>
</customer>
<FirstName>Miguel</FirstName>
<LastName>Cabrera</LastName>
<Age>33</Age>
</customers>

15. Default XSD element types
xs:String
xs:normalizedString
xs:integer
xs:base64Binary
xs:negativeInteger
xs:positiveInteger
xs:Hexbinary
xs:Long
xs:short

16. Custom Types <xsd:simpleType name="SKU">
<xsd:restriction base="xsd:string">
<xsd:pattern value="\d{3}-[A-Z]{2}"/>
</xsd:restriction>
</xsd:simpleType>

17. XML Namespaces
Namespaces allow for XML to be segmented into different parts
<namespace:elementName /> namespace will prefix the element name
<fekke:root xmlns:fekke=“
No namespace xmlns=“”
Use explicit XPath with no namespace
Nonamespace xpath=“/:element”

18. DOM, SAX and Pull Parsers
ColdFusion uses a DOM parser. Entire XML object in memory.
SAX parser reads in file portion of the time. Raises events when elements match.
StAX uses pull based parser to read one node at time. Uses streams to read in portion

19. StAX BEA JSR 173 Many implementations Includes Event and Pull parsers
Jim Collins working on CFStAX library
Woodstox library extremely fast implementation

20. StAX objects XMLInputFactory XMLStreamConstants XMLStreamReader
XMLEventReader

21. XMLStreamConstants Constants for different node types
XMLStreamConstants.START_ELEMENT
XMLStreamConstants.END_ELEMENT
XMLStreamConstants.START_DOCUMENT
XMLStreamConstants.END_DOCUMENT

22. XmlStreamReader methods
Next() iterates through XML stream
getLocalName() returns tag name
getAttributeCount() returns tags attribute count
getAttributeLocalName() returns attribute name
getAttributeValue() returns attribute value
hasText() returns boolean if element has text
getText() returns element text

23. Free XML Tools IE and Firefox have built in DOM parsers
XMLFox for testing validation
XMLButterfly for editing and formatting XML
Don’t use ALtova XML Spy, its crap!

24. Summary Use XMLSearch instead of iterating through DOM
Don’t use cfsavecontent to build XML, use CFXML
If using no namespace, use explicit xpaths
Use xmlFormat or CDATA to handle special characters
Use XSDs over DTDs

25. Links http://www.w3.org/XML/ http://www.w3.org/XML/Schema

26. Books ColdFusion Application Development
Beginning XML (Programmer to Programmer)
O’reilly XML in a Nutshell