Namespaces

• An element has one namespace information item for each namespace in scope on the element. This is not the same as the namespaces declared on the element.

• A Namespace Information Item includes:

  • prefix

  • namespace name

• There is no obvious representation of namespace information items in the syntax of an XML document.

• These are namespace declaration attributes, not namespace information items:

  xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-rdf-syntax#"
  xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/"
  xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
  

• Consider this document:

  <svg:svg width="5cm" height="4cm"
   xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
    <svg:desc>Two rectangles</svg:desc>
    <svg:rect x="1.5cm" y="3.5cm" width="12cm" height="9.9cm"/>
    <svg:rect x="2.5cm" y="2.8cm" width="3cm" height="17cm"/>
  </svg:svg>

  Each of the four elements has a namespace information item with the prefix svg and the namespace name http://www.w3.org/2000/svg