| Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) 5.0 for Microsoft Office - SOM Developer's Guide |  |
When to Use the SOM
Use the SOM when you want to get information about the data type or logical structure of an XML document node. The SOM can also be used to build your own custom structures from an XML Schema.
The SOM is designed to retrieve information from items that are exposed after an XML Schema has been compiled. Unlike the Document Object Model (DOM), SOM does not navigate the XML Schema as an XML document. The SOM views the XML Schema in a compiled format.