Inside XML

Building a Document from Pieces

One way to use external general entities is to build a document from pieces, in which you treat each piece as a general entity. Here's an example; in this case, I'm including an entity that refers to the file data.xml in my document:

<?xml version = "1.0" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE DOCUMENT [
<!ELEMENT DOCUMENT (CUSTOMER)*>
<!ELEMENT CUSTOMER (NAME,DATE,ORDERS)>
<!ELEMENT NAME (LAST_NAME,FIRST_NAME)>
<!ELEMENT LAST_NAME (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT FIRST_NAME (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT DATE (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT ORDERS (ITEM)*>
<!ELEMENT ITEM (PRODUCT,NUMBER,PRICE)>
<!ELEMENT PRODUCT (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT NUMBER (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT PRICE (#PCDATA)>
<!ENTITY data SYSTEM "data.xml">
]>
<DOCUMENT>
&data;
</DOCUMENT>

The file ...