XML - Is there a way to use parameters?

["Brian Modreski" <brian -dot- modreski -at- openlogic -dot- com>]

I think my question may be misleading, because what I am thinking of as
parameters comes from a programming context, not an XML context.  Not
only am I not sure how to do this, I'm not sure what the correct
terminology is, so I was hoping someone could point me in the right
direction.

 

What I would like to do is be able to define an XML entity that can have
a 'parameter' to be filled in when the entity is referenced.

For a really simple example, lets imagine that what I want is something
like this:

 

<!ENTITY Critter "<![CDATA[The animal: ]]> &animal; <![CDATA[ is a ]]>
&type; <![CDATA[.]]> ">

 

Which will then be used to display things like:

The animal: cat is a feline.

The animal: eagle is a bird.

 

So, I want &animal; and &type; to, rather than being entity references,
to be able to dynamically declared, such that I can write something like
this (keeping in mind that I am just inventing syntax here since I don't
know how to do this):

<!ENTITY Dog_desc "&Critter(dog, canine)">

 

Where the 'dog' and 'canine' will be used to populate the animal and
type references, so I will end up displaying the entity 'Dog_desc' as:

 

The animal: dog is a canine.

 

I use the term "parameters", because passing parameters is what I want
to do in programming terms.

Is this possible in XML?  I'd appreciate any information.

 

Brian

 

 

Brian Modreski  |  Technical Writer
brian -dot- modreski -at- openlogic -dot- com

 

720 240 4531  |  phone
720 240 4556  |  fax
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www.openlogic.com <http://www.openlogic.com/> 

OpenLogic, Inc.
Headquarters, Broomfield, Colorado 80021

 

 

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