Using XML with Legacy Business Applications

Namespace Qualification in Instance Documents

The thing that gives most people real heartburn about namespaces is their use in instance documents. This issue has sent some of my standards committee colleagues into apoplectic fits when the topic of namespaces comes up in discussion. Since this chapter is intended to inform you about what you are likely to encounter and is not intended to be a “best practices” guide, I'm going to avoid taking sides in this issue. I will, however, try to point out what some of the controversy and consternation is about.

The most common and simplest way to use namespaces in an instance document is to not explicitly use them at all. The instance document, in essence, has an unnamed default namespace, and all the Elements ...