Conclusion

We have rounded out our view of DTD. We have discovered a powerful metaformat with which we can shape XML documents. But what good is it to Flash programmers? After all, the current Flash parser is not a validating parser ”it will not read in external files such as DTD.

Clearly, there is no value in the runtime use of DTD. But DTD has a critical role in the production process. DTD informs co-developers in your organization and elsewhere how to make XML files that are compliant with your application. It will allow you to test them efficiently .

It is also invaluable in the process of data publishing to both the publisher and the subscriber. It will allow you to produce data for many clients ”not all of them created by you, not all of them using Flash.

Also, it will allow you to create applications that comply with formats that have been developed outside your organization. This brings forward the goal of data sharing between organizations and a web not of graphic pages but of high-order information.

In a later chapter we will write to a popular DTD and peek into a worldwide web of data.