Integrative Programming and Technologies 2

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Data Mapping and Exhange Part 2

Module 07 Data Mapping and Exchange Part 2

Course Learning Outcomes:

1. Distinguish the role of data exchange between dissimilar IT systems.
2. Compare programming design patterns and the IT services needed to
integrate applications.

Background
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is used to describe data. The XML standard is a flexible
way to create information formats and electronically share structured data via the public Internet,
as well as via corporate networks.

XML code, a formal recommendation from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), is
similar to Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Both XML and HTML contain markup symbols to
describe page or file contents. HTML code describes Web page content (mainly text and graphic
images) only in terms of how it is to be displayed and interacted with.

XML data is known as self-describing or self-defining, meaning that the structure of the data
is embedded with the data, thus when the data arrives there is no need to pre-build the structure to
store the data; it is dynamically understood within the XML. The XML format can be used by any
individual or group of individuals or companies that want to share information in a consistent way.
XML is actually a simpler and easier-to-use subset of the Standard Generalized Markup Language
(SGML), which is the standard to create a document structure.

XML Declaration
It is placed at the start of an XML document. Informs XML software of the version of XML the
document conforms to and the character encoding scheme used in the document. Whether or not a
set of external declarations affect the interpretation of this document.

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Data Mapping and Exhange Part 2

XML Elements
Elements define logical structure and sections of XML documents. Each element must be
completely enclosed by another element, except for the root. Each element must be completely
enclosed by another element, except for the root.
There are Four different content types:
–  Data content
–  Element content
–  Mixed content
–  Empty.

XML Attributes
XML attributes provides additional information about an element. Attributes are contained
within the start-tag and consists of a name and associated value separated by an equals sign. The
attribute value must always be enclosed by quotes. The order of attributes is insignificant

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Data Mapping and Exhange Part 2

Element and Attribute Comparison

ELEMENT ATTRIBUTE
•  Constituent data, •  Inherent data,
•  Used for content, •  Used for meta-data,
•  White space can be ignored or preserved •  No further nesting possible (atomic data),
•  Nesting allowed (child elements), •  Default values,
•  Convenient for large values, or binary •  Minimal datatypes,
entities.

Document Type Definition

It defines the structure or model of XML documents in terms of elements and cardinality,
attributes and aggregation, default ATTRIBUTE values and ENTITIES. Stored in a plain text file and
referenced by an XML document (external). Alternatively a DTD can be placed in the XML document
itself (internal). It is also used to validate an XML document.

Why use a DTD?

1. Applications may require all documents to be consistent instances of a particular vocabulary.
2. Indicates what structures and names can be used in a document.
3. Documents are constructed and named in a conformant manner.
4. Validate documents in order to find inconsistencies.

XML Schema

An XML schema is a description of a type of XML document, typically expressed in

terms of constraints on the structure and content of documents of that type, above and beyond the
basic syntactical constraints imposed by XML itself. These constraints are generally expressed using
some combination of grammatical rules governing the order of elements, Boolean predicates that
the content must satisfy, data types governing the content of elements and attributes, and more
specialized rules such as uniqueness and referential integrity constraints.

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Data Mapping and Exhange Part 2

References and Supplementary Materials

Books and Journals
1. Siewart, Sam & John Pratt. (2016). Real time embedded components and systems with
Linux and Rtos, O'Reilly Media

2. Johnson, Richard. (2017). An Introduction to Java Programming and Object-Oriented

Application Development, 1st Edition. Cengage Learning

Online Supplementary Reading Materials

https://www.astera.com/type/blog/understanding-data-mapping-and-its-techniques/

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/generation-programming-languages/

Online Instructional Videos

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4bZR3lznUY

Course Module