How InfoPath uses XML technologies
Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003 makes use of a variety of XML technologies, including XSLT, XML Schemas, XHTML, XPath, the DOM, XML Signatures, and an XML processor that works with all of these technologies. These technologies are governed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which recommends a specific set of rules, guidelines, and conventions for producing files that are easy to generate and process by different computers and applications. In addition to the XML technologies that InfoPath supports, InfoPath makes use of special processing instructions and namespaces and has a number of methods for accessing the DOM through the InfoPath object model.
InfoPath is a Microsoft Windows–based application that is used to create forms based on XML and its associated technologies. Although it is not necessary to understand all of the details of these XML technologies, the following table will help you understand how these technologies are used in InfoPath.
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| XML | XML is the output format that is produced by an InfoPath form. XML is also used to contain the sample data that is displayed in the fields of a form before a user fills it out. |
| XSLT | XSLT is the format of the view files that are produced when a form is designed. InfoPath does not support the use of XSL Formatting Objects (XSL-FO) for the presentation of XML data, nor does it support the importing of arbitrary .xsl files. |
| XML Schema | XML Schemas are used as the primary means of data validation in a form, and they provide the underlying structure of the XML document that is produced by the form. In addition, an XML Schema is used to define the structure of the form definition (.xsf) file that is generated by InfoPath when a form is designed. InfoPath does not support the use of XML-Data Reduced (XDR) or Document Type Definition (DTD) for defining the schema of XML documents. |
| XHTML | XHTML is well-formed HTML and is primarily used when developing rich text areas. |
| XPath | XPath expressions are used for binding controls to a form, as well as for data validation and conditional formatting expressions. |
| DOM | The DOM is used to programmatically access the contents of the source XML document that a form produces. It is also used to provide read-only access to the contents of the .xsf file. |
| XML Signature | XML Signatures are used to digitally sign forms that were created by InfoPath. Each InfoPath form can contain one or more digital signatures. InfoPath supports digital signing of portions of a form, as well as the form as a whole. |
| XML processor | The XML processor is used to load the source XML of a document into memory, validate it using the XML Schema, and produce the view of the document by using XSLT. The XML processor supported by InfoPath is Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) 5.0. Earlier versions of this processor are not supported. |