Methods and systems for generating xml documents

Abstract

Methods and systems are described for generating an XML document that do not require a hierarchical tree structure to be built and stored in memory in order for the document to be built. In one embodiment, a request object is provided and is used to receive information from a client that desires to generate an XML document and to organize the information into an XML document. Information is first accumulated by the request object and then transformed into an appropriate XML document. The information that is accumulated by the request object includes the namespaces or namespace values that are to be incorporated into the request. All of the namespaces or namespace values are collected and organized into a data structure. Prefixes are assigned to and stored with each namespace value that is placed in the data structure. Some of the namespace values can be reserved and have predefined or reserved prefixes that serve to support legacy servers. A namespace arbiter object can be utilized by the request object to manage and oversee maintenance of the data structure that contains the namespace values and their prefixes. Additional objects are provided and manage associations of the namespace prefixes, properties and, in some embodiments, property values. An XML document is generated using the data structures that hold the namespace name values, their prefixes, properties, and property values without having to build and store a hierarchical tree structure to represent the XML document.