Question
Answer and Explanation
"Stripping Namespace" in the context of XML or related technologies refers to the process of removing namespace prefixes from elements and attributes, thereby simplifying the structure of the document or the way its elements and attributes are represented.
To fully understand, here’s a breakdown:
1. What are Namespaces?
Namespaces in XML are mechanisms used to avoid naming conflicts when using XML elements and attributes that might come from different sources or vocabularies. They use prefixes which are usually bound to URIs defining these sources. For instance, elements could be declared with an "xhtml" or an "svg" namespace, like this: <xhtml:div> or <svg:rect>. The URI identifies what that element definition pertains to, such as the definition of an xhtml or svg element.
2. Why use namespaces?
Namespaces are important, as XML can use elements and attributes from various schemas within the same XML document, it requires a methodology of distinguishing same names from multiple source of definitions of XML Schema/Vocabularies. Hence Namespaces make the system stable as the document becomes more complex, without the fear of a conflict between the attributes or tags defined by you with respect to the other user, using the same attributes with same tag name.
3. What is "stripping namespaces"?
Stripping namespaces involves removing namespace prefixes (e.g., 'xhtml:', 'svg:') and related URI declarations so that XML documents can become less complex. Typically during this operation it uses just the local element or attribute names. For example, converting an element <xhtml:div class="main"> into just <div class="main"> while still retaining other local details like 'class' or other attributes that belongs to it. Stripping namespaces also means it won't use URIs to know about the source.
4. When is namespace stripping used?
Simplifying processing: Tools may need the document to be in a simpler format to allow manipulation in other environment or for it to be stored somewhere efficiently.
Data Migration/Integration: During data integration projects when you have to match similar looking structures it’s important to get a unique tag names so matching and parsing logic does not have a problem.
Reducing output Size: Sometimes you would want smaller text to be transferred across different networks for display purposes, removing long namespaced attribute and tags and then representing the data into something simpler makes the overall file size smaller and hence network data consumption gets efficient.
Example of stripping namespaces
If you have an XML content like this
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root xmlns:x="http://example.com/ns1" xmlns:y="http://example.org/ns2">
<x:element1 x:attribute1="value1"/>
<y:element2> <x:element3/> </y:element2>
</root>
Stripping namespaces from the above xml can produce the below result
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root >
<element1 attribute1="value1"/>
<element2> <element3/></element2>
</root>
In summary, "stripping namespace" reduces an XML document's verbosity by removing the prefix while retaining all other characteristics from those attributes and elements without changing their local meaning.