Attributes

[Former Member]

Hi all,

can you tell me why we need to define attributes when creating data type instead we declared it as elements . specific reason behind defining field as attributes

Regards,

Komik Shah

[udo_martens · Accepted solution]

Hi Komik,

you dont need, it is an option. The difference to elements is that they do NOT have a sequence (in the point of view of a parser) and they can contain only text nodes.

Regards,

Udo

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Udo,

it is an option as you are saying so can we define it as constants all the time ?

give me reason with one example .

Regards,

Komik Shah

[udo_martens · Accepted solution]

Hi komik,

it is your decision to design a datatype only with element or to use as well attributes, as constants or not.

You can have

<name>
<first>Udo</first>
<family>Martens</family>
</name>

or

<name first="Udo" family="Martens"></name>

Regards,

Udo

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

hi ,

so whenever we define attributes we have to use constants node in mapping that's what you are telling .

Regards,

Komik Shah

[udo_martens · Accepted solution]

Hi Komik,

no, you CAN define an attribute as constant, it is an option.

Regards,

Udo

[Shabarish_Nair · Accepted solution]

if you had refered the link i had provided it clearly explains that it is beter to avoid using attributes in XML but they are handly in HTML.

Extract from the link:

<i>Use of Elements vs. Attributes

Data can be stored in child elements or in attributes.

Take a look at these examples:

<person sex="female">

<firstname>Anna</firstname>

<lastname>Smith</lastname>

</person>

<person>

<sex>female</sex>

<firstname>Anna</firstname>

<lastname>Smith</lastname>

</person>

In the first example sex is an attribute. In the last, sex is a child element. Both examples provide the same information.

There are no rules about when to use attributes, and when to use child elements. My experience is that attributes are handy in HTML, but in XML you should try to avoid them. Use child elements if the information feels like data.</i>

[Shabarish_Nair]

Attributes are used to provide additional information about elements.

Ref: http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_attributes.asp

[Former Member]

Hi Komik,

Suppose you have the element ContactNo, attributes of this element would be like Office,Home,Mobile It means you may get three values for the element ContactNo. Which elements are having more possible values in single occurence to those elements by defining the attributes u will get all the values.Similarly Address. Attributes are like Dr.No,Street,City,Pincode.

Hope this will useful to understand !!!

Cheers

Veera

[Former Member]

Hi veera,

if third party has no attributes in contact no like office,home,mobile then we can define it as constants when we do mapping ?

Regards,

Komik Shah