Data Format Description Language (DFDL) v1.0 Specification
OGF Proposed Recommendation GFD-P-R.174, January 31, 2011


18. External Control of the DFDL Processor

In addition to providing the DFDL schema and data to be parsed or serialized, DFDL Schemas can also be parameterized by external variables,.

DFDL processors can provide means to specify:

  1. The data to be processed: a data stream when parsing or an infoset when unparsing.

  2. The DFDL schema to be used

  3. The distinguished root node element declaration to be used (specifying both name of element and namespace of that name)

  4. Values for external variables

Notice also that like any XML schema a DFDL schema can have multiple top-level element declarations, so the distinguished root node is necessary to indicate which of these top-level element declarations is to be the starting point for processing data. The distinguished root node may be omitted if the DFDL schema contains only one top-level element declaration.

The mechanism by which a DFDL processor is controlled is not specified by this standard. For example, command line DFDL processors may use command line options, but DFDL processors embedded in other kinds of software systems may need other mechanisms.


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