Principles of XML design: When the order of XML elements matters
Subtitle: When to be strict and when to be lax as you decide how to order child elements
Editor's synopsis: When multiple XML elements occur within another element, does element order matter? Whether it's the order in which the parser reports elements to applications, or the question of whether or not to mandate specific order in schema patterns, things are not always as simple as they may seem. In this article, Uche Ogbuji covers design and processing considerations related to the order of XML elements.
This is the latest in my series on XML design. The other installments are:
- "When to use elements versus attributes" (developerWorks, March 2004)
- "Use XML namespaces with care" (developerWorks, April 2004)
- "Element structures for names and addresses" (developerWorks, August 2004)
- "Considering container elements" (developerWorks, September 2004)
Also along these lines are my discussion of ERH's excellent book Effective XML, and my article "Keep your XML clean".