Home Articles FAQs XREF Games Software Instant Books BBS About FOLDOC RFCs Feedback Sitemap
irt.Org
#

Q5209 What are XML namespaces?

You are here: irt.org | FAQ | XML | Q5209 [ previous next ]

Namespaces are another advanced feature of XML, outlined in a W3C note as part of the XML 1.0 specification.

They allow developers to qualify uniquely the element names and relationships and make these names recognizable, to avoid name collisions on elements that have the same name but are defined in different vocabularies.

They allow tags from multiple namespaces to be mixed, which is essential if data is coming from multiple sources. For example, a bookstore may define the <TITLE> tag to mean the title of a book, contained only within the <BOOK> element. A directory of people, however, might define <TITLE> to indicate a person's position, for instance: <TITLE>President</TITLE>.

Namespaces help define this distinction clearly.

Feedback on 'Q5209 What are XML namespaces?'

©2018 Martin Webb