News Release: World Wide Web Consortium Issues DOM Level 3 As a W3C Recommendation

Today, W3C's work on the development of standard APIs for HTML and XML
documents is complete with the publication of the Document Object Model
Level 3 Core and Load & Save Recommendations. DOM Level 3 makes it
possible for more sophisticated and powerful combinations of scripting
languages and XML documents and data, including the critical Web
services applications space.

For more information, please contact Janet Daly, W3C Head of
Communications, at +1 617 253 5884 or <janet@w3.org>


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World Wide Web Consortium Issues DOM Level 3 As a W3C Recommendation
DOM Level 3 Extends Foundations for XML and Web Services Applications

Contact America --
     Janet Daly, <janet@w3.org>, +1.617.253.5884 or +1.617.253.2613
Contact Europe --
     Marie-Claire Forgue, <mcf@w3.org>, +33.492.38.75.94
Contact Asia --
     Yasuyuki Hirakawa <chibao@w3.org>, +81.466.49.1170

Web Resources:

This press release
	in English: http://www.w3.org/2004/03/dom-level-3-pr.html.en
	in French: http://www.w3.org/2004/03/dom-level-3-pr.html.fr
	in Japanese: http://www.w3.org/2004/03/dom-level-3-pr.html.ja

Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core
http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-DOM-Level-3-Core-20040407/

Document Object Model Level (DOM) 3 Load and Save
http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-DOM-Level-3-LS-20040407/

DOM Homepage
http://www.w3.org/DOM/

http://www.w3.org/ -- 7 April 2004 -- Leading the Web to its full
potential, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) today released the
Document Object Model Level 3 Core and Load and Save specifications as
W3C Recommendations. The specifications reflect cross-industry agreement
on a standard API (Applications Programming Interface) for manipulating
documents and data through a programming language (such as Java or
ECMAScript). A W3C Recommendation indicates that a specification is
stable, contributes to Web interoperability, and has been reviewed by
the W3C Membership, who favor its adoption by the industry.

DOM Level 3 Brings The Latest of XML to the DOM Developers

Created and developed by the W3C Document Object Model (DOM) Working
Group, DOM Level 3 Core extends the platform- and language-neutral
interface to access and update dynamically a document's content,
structure, and style first described by the DOM Level 2 W3C
Recommendations. DOM Level 3 provides a standard set of objects for
representing Extensible Markup Language (XML) documents and data,
including namespace, XML Base, and XML Schema datatypes support.

DOM Level 2 was designed for HTML 4.01, XML 1.0, and Namespaces in XML.
With DOM Level 3, authors can take further advantage of the XML
platform. It provide support for XML 1.1 and is aligned with the XML
Information Set, specification which is also used by other W3C
Recommendations such as XML Schema 1.0 and SOAP 1.2.

DOM Level 3 Enhances Support of the XML Platform, Extends Web Services
Applications

DOM Level 3 enhances the support for XML namespaces and schema-type
information. It delivers critical functionalities for Web services
applications, as well as other mainstream XML applications.

Loading a DOM implementation becomes easier with DOM Level 3, and
applications can load them according to their requirements. For example,
to deploy a Web service on a Web site, one needs to use a WSDL
processor, as services themselves are described using WSDL. DOM Level 3
makes it easier for processors to use and manipulate WSDL descriptions
through its enhanced ability to work with XML namespaces.

DOM modules now include a feature called "bootstrapping," which allows a
DOM application to find and load a DOM implementation that will provide
access to the DOM API. It makes it possible to request a DOM
implementation for specific needs, such as XHTML, SVG, CSS, or even XML
Events. This makes it easier for developers to handle systems with
multiple XML-application-specific DOM implementations, such as a browser
combined with an SVG plug-in. Both the browser and the plug-in may
include DOM support, but for very specific languages; the browser may
support HTML and/or XHTML, and the SVG plug-in may only support SVG. A
DOM developer would want to be able to have access to each specific DOM
implementation; bootstrapping makes that possible.

DOM Level 3 has been tuned to simplify the work of Web developers in
their day-to-day tasks by adding common and useful functions, such as
extracting the text content from XML documents or the ability to attach
application specific information to a DOM node. This is referred to as
the user data system. With a system of keys, a developer can associate
information to a DOM node for future use. If a developer wants to
annotate a document with non-XML information, the user data mechanism
may also be used.

DOM Level 3 Loads and Saves XML Documents

Loading and saving XML documents and data are now possible in a
platform- and language-neutral way with the DOM Level 3 Load and Save
Recommendation. Both simple and advanced filtering mechanisms are
provided for Web applications. DOM Level 3 Load and Save allows
applications to move between a complete XML document, or an XML
fragment, to a DOM tree. With DOM Level 3 Load and Save, it is also
possible to use filtering to load a specific fragment rather than an
entire document, and be able to work with only the required data fragment.

DOM Test Suites Updated to Conform to Recommendations

Developers now may also take advantage of the updated DOM Conformance
Test Suites, which now include current tests for Level 1 Core, Level 2
Core, Level 2 HTML, as well as tests that conform to the new Level 3
Core, Level 3 Load and Save, and Level 3 Validation Recommendations.

DOM Level 3 Marks Successful Completion of Efforts by Industry Leaders

With the successful completion of the three DOM Level 3 specifications
(Core, Load and Save, and Validation), the DOM efforts are complete.
Since the inception of the DOM Activity in 1997, over 20 organizations
as well as invited experts have contributed to the evolution of 10 DOM
standards including AOL; Apple Computer; Arbortext; IBM; Lucent;
Macromedia; Merrill Lynch; Microsoft; NIST; Novell; Object Management
Group; Oracle; SoftQuad, Inc.; Software AG; Sun Microsystems; Web3D
Consortium; and X-Hive Corporation.

About the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C]

The W3C was created to lead the Web to its full potential by developing
common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its
interoperability. It is an international industry consortium jointly run
by the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT
CSAIL) in the USA, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and
Mathematics (ERCIM) headquartered in France and Keio University in
Japan. Services provided by the Consortium include: a repository of
information about the World Wide Web for developers and users, and
various prototype and sample applications to demonstrate use of new
technology. To date, nearly 400 organizations are Members of the
Consortium. For more information see http://www.w3.org/

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Received on Wednesday, 7 April 2004 10:00:10 UTC