Java™ APIs for XML Kick Start

Handling Namespaces

Namespaces are a mechanism by which similar tags from different DTDs can be used in the same XML document. For example, let's say you create an XML document listing the description of a car, and suppose you have two stereo brands and their price.

The XML document will look like this:

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<car>
    <color>red</color>
    <stereo>
        <brandname>xxxxxx</brandname>
        <price>200</price>
    </stereo>
    <stereo>
        <brandname>yyy</brandname>
        <price>1200</price>
    </stereo>
</car>

Now assume that the price has two different definitions on how it should be processed. This can occur if the stereo vendors are different. In such a case, although the element name is the same, the two price elements belong to different definitions. To allow ...