To understand macro scripts you do not need to learn a great deal
about XML, just the basics of the syntax. If your knowledge of XML
syntax needs brushing up, you can learn more about it in XML syntax in the Z and I Emulator for Web macro language. However, almost all of what you need to
know is covered in this subsection.
As you probably know already, an XML script consists of a collection
of XML elements, some of which contain other XML elements, in much
the same way that some HTML elements contain other HTML elements.
However, unlike HTML, XML allows a program developer to define new
XML elements that reflect the structure of the information that the
developer wishes to store. The Z and I Emulator for Web macro language contains
approximately 35 different types of XML elements for storing the information
needed to describe a macro. This macro language is described at length
in The macro language.
This book, when referring to an XML macro element, uses the element
name enclosed in angle brackets. Examples: <HAScript> element, <screen>
element.
Sample XML
element shows an example of an XML
element:
The <SampleElement> element shown in the figure above contains
the key components of every macro element. The first line is the begin
tag. It consists of a left angle bracket (<), followed by the name
of the XML element (SampleElement), followed by attribute definitions,
followed by a right angle bracket (>). The second line consists of
an ellipsis (...) that is not part of XML syntax but is used in the
figure above to indicate the possible presence of other elements inside
the <SampleElement> element. The third line is the end tag. It
contains the name of the element enclosed in angle brackets with a
forward slash after the first angle bracket (</Sample Element>).
In the begin tag, the attributes are specified by using the attribute
name (such as attribute1), followed by an equals sign (=), followed
by an attribute value enclosed in quotation marks (such as "value1").
Any number of attributes can occur in the begin tag.
If the macro element does not contain other XML elements then it
can be written in the shorthand fashion shown in Sample
XML element written in the shorthand format:
In the figure above the <SampleElement> element is written
with a left angle bracket (<) followed by the name (SampleElement),
followed by the attributes, followed by a forward slash and a right
angle bracket (/>). Thus the entire XML element is written within
a single pair of angle brackets.