Abstract
This document defines serializationmethods of serializing an instance of the data model as defined in [XDM 4.0] into a sequence of octets, conforming to a variety of formats including XML, HTML, and JSON. Serialization is designed to be a component that can be used by other specificationseither on its own, or invoked from languages such as [XSLT 4.0], [XPath 4.0] or [XQuery 4.0].
Status of this Document
This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at https://www.w3.org/TR/.This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document.This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at https://www.w3.org/TR/.
This document is governed by the 1 March 2017 W3C Process Document.
This is a Recommendation of the W3C. It was jointly developed by the W3C XSLT Working Group and the W3C XML Query Working Group, each of which is part of the XML Activity.
This Editor's Draft specifies XSLT and XQuery Serialization version 4.0, a fully compatible extension of Serialization version 3.1.
This specification is designed to be referenced normatively from other specifications defining a host language for it; it is not intended to be implemented outside a host language. The implementability of this specification has been tested in the context of its normative inclusion in host languages defined by the XQuery 3.1 and XSLT 3.0 specifications; see the XQuery 3.1 implementation report (and, in the future, the WGs expect that there will also be an XSLT 3.0 implementation report) for details.
No substantive changes have been made to this specification since its publication as a Proposed Recommendation.
Please report errors in this document using W3C's public Bugzilla system (instructions can be found at https://www.w3.org/XML/2005/04/qt-bugzilla). If access to that system is not feasible, you may send your comments to the W3C XSLT/XPath/XQuery public comments mailing list, public-qt-comments@w3.org. It will be very helpful if you include the string “[SER40]” in the subject line of your report, whether made in Bugzilla or in email. Please use multiple Bugzilla entries (or, if necessary, multiple email messages) if you have more than one comment to make. Archives of the comments and responses are available at https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-qt-comments/.
This document has been reviewed by W3C Members, by software developers, and by other W3C groups and interested parties, and is endorsed by the Director as a W3C Recommendation. It is a stable document and may be used as reference material or cited from another document. W3C's role in making the Recommendation is to draw attention to the specification and to promote its widespread deployment. This enhances the functionality and interoperability of the Web.
This document was produced by groups operating under the 5 February 2004 W3C Patent Policy. W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures (W3C XML Query Working Group) and a public list of any patent disclosures (W3C XSLT Working Group) made in connection with the deliverables of each group; these pages also include instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) must disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.
This document is a working draft developed and maintained by a W3C Community Group, the XQuery and XSLT Extensions Community Group unofficially known as QT4CG (where "QT" denotes Query and Transformation). This draft is work in progress and should not be considered either stable or complete. Standard W3C copyright and patent conditions apply.
The community group welcomes comments on the specification. Comments are best submitted as issues on the group's GitHub repository.
The community group maintains two extensive test suites, one oriented to XQuery and XPath, the other to XSLT. These can be found at qt4tests and xslt40-test respectively. New tests, or suggestions for correcting existing tests, are welcome. The test suites include extensive metadata describing the conditions for applicability of each test case as well as the expected results. They do not include any test drivers for executing the tests: each implementation is expected to provide its own test driver.
Dedication
The publications of this community group are dedicated to our co-chair, Michael Sperberg-McQueen (1954–2024).
Changes in 4.0 ⬇
Use the arrows to browse significant changes since the 3.1 version of this specification.
Sections with significant changes are marked Δ in the table of contents.
This document defines methods of serializing of the W3C XQuery and XPath Data Model 4.0 ([XDM 4.0]), that is, methods of representing instances of the data model as strings or octet sequences. This is the data model used by [XPath 4.0], [XSLT 4.0], and [XQuery 4.0], and any other specifications that reference it.
In this document, examples and material labeled as “Note” are provided for explanatory purposes and are not normative.
Serialization is the process of converting an instance of the [XDM 4.0] into a sequence of octets.
[Definition: The XDM value supplied as input to the serializer is referred to as the input value.] Some serialization methods apply only to certain types of input value.
Note:
Where serialization is used to process the result of an XQuery evaluation or an XSLT transformation, the input value of the serializer corresponds to the output from XQuery or XSLT.
[Definition: In general the output of the serializer will represent the items actually present in the input value, together with other items that are reachable from these, for example (in the case of nodes) their descendants. The complete set of items that are represented in the output of the serializer is referred to (without loss of generality) as the input tree.]