XML Namespace

http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_namespaces.asp

XML Namespaces provide a method to avoid element name conflicts.

When using prefixes in XML, a so-called namespace for the prefix must be defined.

The namespace is defined by the xmlns attribute in the start tag of an element.

The namespace declaration has the following syntax. xmlns:prefix="URI".

<root>

<h:table xmlns:h="http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/">
  <h:tr>
    <h:td>Apples</h:td>
    <h:td>Bananas</h:td>
  </h:tr>
</h:table>

<f:table xmlns:f="http://www.w3schools.com/furniture">
  <f:name>African Coffee Table</f:name>
  <f:width>80</f:width>
  <f:length>120</f:length>
</f:table>

</root>

In the example above, the xmlns attribute in the <table> tag give the h: and f: prefixes a qualified namespace.

When a namespace is defined for an element, all child elements with the same prefix are associated with the same namespace.

Namespaces can be declared in the elements where they are used or in the XML root element:

<root
xmlns:h="http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/"
xmlns:f="http://www.w3schools.com/furniture">

<h:table>
  <h:tr>
    <h:td>Apples</h:td>
    <h:td>Bananas</h:td>
  </h:tr>
</h:table>

<f:table>
  <f:name>African Coffee Table</f:name>
  <f:width>80</f:width>
  <f:length>120</f:length>
</f:table>

</root>

Note: The namespace URI is not used by the parser to look up information.

The purpose is to give the namespace a unique name. However, often companies use the namespace as a pointer to a web page containing namespace information.