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XML Syntax Basics

Serena XML is SERENA Software’s markup language for Enterprise Change Management (ECM). It is standard XML extended to support the customization, data interchange, and interoperability needs of ChangeMan ZMF customers as they implement change management solutions. Serena XML is the most visible component of XML Services.

The Serena XML markup vocabulary consists of more than a thousand special-purpose XML tags used to delimit values in a text file. These tags are defined according to XML’s rules for adding new tags to itself. The particular mechanism for defining these special-purpose tags is called an XML schema. The Serena XML schemas define not only the tag vocabulary of Serena XML, but also the structure of each data element named by these tags and the syntax used when populating these data elements in an XML document.

Is Serena XML “really” XML, then? The answer is, emphatically, yes. XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language. Its reason for being is to provide a standard method for creating special-purpose markup languages — extensions, that is, to the base XML tag set. There are two points to remember about XML extensions:

  • Extensions are not replacements; they are additions. XML imposes a discipline on its language extensions that makes them systematically extensible over time. Within broad limits, this discipline prevents the foreclosure of alternatives; future options remain open. Built-in XML extensibility means that Serena XML can grow and change without forcing obsolescence on earlier versions of the language.

  • Extensions to XML are syntactically consistent with XML. All special-purpose extensions to XML follow the same basic syntactic and structural rules. Familiarity with basic XML syntax makes all XML-based markup languages easier to learn and use.

Some knowledge of Serena XML syntax is needed by all users of XML Services. For example, COBOL programmers working with the COBOL-to-XML copybook interface need to know about individual copybook functions and predefined COBOL variable names, data types, and value information — all of which derive from Serena XML. Programmers who work directly with Serena XML need not only data type and value information, but also detailed information about XML language syntax and data structures.

This chapter begins with a discussion of general XML syntax and standards as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). It then addresses the basic features of Serena XML.

The features discussed are those that apply to all message documents created in Serena XML and to all ChangeMan ZMF user tasks performed via Serena XML. The chapter concludes with a summary of all valid combinations of \<service>, \<scope>, and \<message> name attributes in Serena XML available to customers for general use. This summary includes the names of the corresponding COBOL-to-XML copybooks.

This chapter includes the following sections: