x-definition-beginner-xml Files

The file xdef-beginner.jar is practically identical to xdef-40.1.3.jar, which resides at www.xdefinice.cz. The only differences are as follows.

1. The jar file has a main class (xdef.java: the source is in xdef-beginner.jar's root directory), the purpose of which is to enable persons who don't wish to write or compile Java code to use X-definition.

2. When xdef-beginner.jar's main class is run (java -jar xdef-beginner.jar .xdef .xml), a different class to the X-definition API's org.xdef.sys.NullReportWriter takes its place. It is org.xdef.sys.NewNullReportWriter, "created" by literally duplicating NullReportWriter.java, renaming the class and its constructor to NewNullReportWriter, and, finally, commenting out three lines of code in a method, putReport, that had been declared final in the original code. Hacking org.xdef.sys.NullReportWriter in this manner makes it feasible to run X-definition as a means of filtering the data that very large XML documents contain, as opposed to validating it as one does when deploying a schema. The upshot is that xdef-beginner.jar contains one additional source file, and one additional .class file.

3. Copies of the relevant licenses (Apache Version 2.0) and copyright statements are included in xdef-beginner.jar, where the original download from www.xdefinice.cz put them in the directory of the .zip archive that contains xdef-40.1.3.jar.

Even though xdef-beginner.jar can be used to run any and all code that uses the X-definition API (xdef-40.1.3.jar doesn't have a main class, although it includes classes from Syntea Software Group that do have a main() method and that run when xdef-40.1.3.jar is put in one's classpath), it's wise to download the proper distribution at the www.xdefinice.cz website. The .zip archive contains several hundred pages of valuable user documentation in pdf format, as well as the API javadoc, all of the source code, and examples.