Research draft

XML

vr.tr.xml · INF.MED

Enable an AI agent to recognise XML representations, assess their structural and interpretive state, and decide which inspection, validation, transformation or exchange operations are justified.

Thing Registry Information and virtual systems

Research draft, second pass

A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.

Researched by: Codex + Grok

Purpose and description

Enable an AI agent to recognise XML representations, assess their structural and interpretive state, and decide which inspection, validation, transformation or exchange operations are justified.

XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a W3C-standardized, SGML-derived metalanguage that serializes hierarchical documents and data as Unicode text under a single well-formedness grammar of nested tagged elements, attributes, character data and optional validity constraints (DTD or schema).

It can be Parse a document or context-qualified fragment and report XML errors with locations.; Inspect ordered content and select nodes using explicit namespace bindings.; Validate against an identified, authorised DTD or schema and record diagnostics.; Resolve or refuse external dependencies under an explicit processing policy.; Transform or serialise XML while checking declared preservation requirements.; Compare versions using byte, lexical, tree or vocabulary-aware criteria chosen for the task..

Distinguishing features

Check whether the representation satisfies XML well-formedness rules, including case-sensitive names, properly nested elements and quoted attribute values; visual resemblance to markup is insufficient.

Distinguish a complete XML document, which has one document element, from a fragment containing multiple elements or text that requires a processing context.

Determine whether content is processed with XML or HTML parsing rules; an HTML-like vocabulary or an XHTML namespace alone does not establish the processing mode.

Check whether identity and order depend on expanded element names, attributes and mixed text content, rather than treating the representation as interchangeable with a JSON object.

Distinguish XML well-formedness from conformance to an identified DTD or schema; successful parsing alone does not establish vocabulary validity.

Scope

+ XML document or fragment boundaries, declared version, encoding and well-formedness

+ Elements, attributes, ordered content, text and namespace-qualified names

+ DOCTYPE declarations, entity references and external resource dependencies

+ Validation against identified DTDs or schemas and the limits of that validation

+ Parsing, querying, transformation, serialisation and XML-specific preservation requirements

+ Processing restrictions needed to handle untrusted or dependency-bearing XML

- Business meaning and operational rules of XML vocabularies such as invoice or scientific data formats

- The complete models of XML Schema, XPath, XSLT and other associated languages

- Parser software installation, implementation internals and service operations

- Transport protocols, storage systems and access-control infrastructure

- HTML parsing and recovery rules for documents processed as HTML

- General cryptographic signature and identity models

Characteristics

Representation boundary: complete document | fragment | unresolved Determines which parsing entry point and contextual assumptions are required.
XML version: 1.0 | 1.1 | unresolved, with declared and effective values distinguished Determines applicable syntax and character rules and processor compatibility.
Encoding evidence: relationships among byte encoding, byte-order mark, XML declaration and transport metadata Conflicting or incomplete evidence can prevent reliable decoding.
Well-formedness assessment: not assessed | well-formed | not well-formed | assessment incomplete Controls whether ordinary XML processing can proceed and records where inspection stopped.
Namespace identity: prefix bindings and expanded names expressed as namespace name plus local name Prevents prefix spelling from being mistaken for vocabulary identity.
Content form: empty | text-only | element-only | mixed, recorded per element Guides extraction and prevents transformations from discarding text or significant ordering.
Validation assessment: not assessed | valid | invalid | indeterminate, relative to an identified constraint set and processor configuration Makes validity a qualified result rather than an intrinsic, context-free label.
External dependencies: referenced DTDs, entities, schemas and processing resources, with resolution status Reveals requirements for reproducibility, offline processing and controlled resource access.
Maximum element depth: nested element levels, with the document element counted as level 1 Helps compare the document with configured processing limits.
Preservation requirement: exact bytes | specified lexical features | specified tree properties | vocabulary-defined meaning Determines whether reserialisation, formatting or transformation is acceptable.

Also called

TEI/XMLCursor on Target

Where this came from

wikidata · CC0 1.0

Source repository Registry entry point

Drafted structure

Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 18 findings · 31 questions.

Syntax and document boundary Records what constitutes the XML input and whether its characters form an admissible document or fragment.

An agent must establish a usable XML boundary and decoding before interpreting markup.

Input boundary and decoding

Identifies the input extent, representation form and evidence used to decode it.

Document or fragment context

Records whether the input stands alone or requires enclosing namespace, entity or structural context.

Is the input a complete XML document or a fragment, and what establishes its boundaries? boundary
What XML version and character encoding apply, and do the declaration, byte evidence and transport metadata agree? measurement

Well-formedness

Separates successful XML syntax assessment from incomplete processing and vocabulary validation.

Syntax assessment evidence

Records the parser outcome, configuration and locations of structural or character errors.

Does the input satisfy the applicable XML well-formedness rules, including nesting, attribute uniqueness and reference syntax? measurement
Which parser, configuration and input extent support that assessment, and did processing reach the end? provenance

Names and content structure Captures XML name identity and the ordered combination of markup and character content.

XML extraction and editing depend on namespace-aware names and preservation of content order.

Namespace bindings

Distinguishes local names, namespace names and scoped prefix aliases.

Expanded name identity

Records expanded names and the context needed to interpret prefixes in markup or vocabulary-defined values.

What are the expanded names of relevant elements and attributes, accounting for the fact that a default namespace does not apply to unprefixed attribute names? definition
Which attribute or text values represent qualified names under the vocabulary's rules, and which in-scope bindings interpret them? boundary

Ordered and mixed content

Records element nesting, attributes and text in the order needed for faithful interpretation.

Content and whitespace significance

Identifies where text, child order and whitespace must survive processing.

Which elements contain mixed text and child elements, and what ordering must an extraction or edit preserve? measurement
What evidence from xml:space, constraints or vocabulary rules permits whitespace to be preserved, normalised or removed? action

Constraints and vocabulary contract Connects the XML representation to identified structural constraints and vocabulary interpretation.

Well-formed XML can still violate its intended exchange contract or lack enough context for meaningful use.

Constraint authority

Identifies the governing constraint resources and distinguishes authority from document-supplied hints.

Governing DTD or schema

Records the selected constraint language, resource version and basis for selection.

Which DTD, XML Schema, RELAX NG schema or other constraint set governs this use, and how was its authority established? provenance
Are DOCTYPE identifiers or schema-location hints accepted, overridden or ignored by the consuming system? action

Validation and interpretation

Records validation results and the boundary between checked structure and application meaning.

Qualified conformance result

Associates diagnostics and processing effects with a specific constraint set and run.

What validation result and diagnostics were obtained against the identified constraint versions? measurement
Which defaults, normalisations or type annotations did processing contribute to the representation available to the agent? provenance
Which vocabulary meanings or business rules remain unchecked even if validation succeeds? boundary

Dependencies and processing limits Records XML resource resolution, expansion behaviour and limits on parser work.

The same XML bytes can produce different outcomes depending on external resources and processor settings.

Resource resolution

Identifies resources that particular processing stages may request and how their locations are resolved.

External resource dependency map

Separates parser dependencies from optional inclusion, validation and transformation resources.

Which external DTDs or entities are referenced, and which additional resources would enabled schema validation, XInclude or transformation stages request? measurement
What base URI, applicable xml:base values, resolver rules or catalog mappings determine the effective resource locations? provenance
Which resources may be accessed, and what result is required when a dependency is unavailable or refused? action

Expansion and resource budgets

Captures entity handling and processing budgets needed to assess whether an operation can complete acceptably.

Bounded parser execution

Records configured controls and distinguishes limit-triggered termination from a proven syntax failure.

Are DOCTYPE processing, external entity resolution and entity expansion enabled for this operation? action
What limits apply to nesting depth, expanded content size, input size and processing time, and were any reached? measurement

Operations and preservation Defines how XML may be selected, changed and serialised while retaining the properties required by its use.

An XML operation can preserve a parsed tree while changing bytes, lexical details or vocabulary-sensitive values.

Selection and transformation

Records the context and assumptions under which XML queries and edits target the intended content.

Namespace-aware operation contract

Specifies selection context, transformation dependencies and required postconditions.

What query or transformation language version, context node and namespace bindings identify the intended nodes? definition
Which content may be changed, and what well-formedness, validation and vocabulary-specific checks must pass afterward? action

Serialisation and equivalence

Distinguishes exact representation preservation from tree-level or application-defined equivalence.

Round-trip preservation contract

Records whether lexical choices, comments, processing instructions and signed content constrain output.

Must a round trip preserve exact bytes, prefixes, CDATA boundaries, entity spelling, comments or processing instructions, or only specified tree properties? boundary
If comparison or signature verification uses canonicalisation, which algorithm, options and selected content govern the result? definition
Which serialisation or formatting changes are permitted, and how will the required equivalence be checked? action

Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.

A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.