ABL implements DOM with two ABL object types:

  • X-document — Represents an entire XML document tree
  • X-noderef — Represents a reference to a single node in the XML tree of the document

The objects are defined with the CREATE X-DOCUMENT and CREATE X-NODEREF statements. Methods and attributes on the objects provide the rest of the functionality.

If you provide a Document Type Definition document (DTD) or an XML Schema document, then ABL can perform the appropriate schema validation on reads of the DOM tree.