XML tree models

The W3C specifications for XSLT, XQuery, and XPath model an XML document as a tree. This data model is known as XDM, and the nodes of an XDM tree are known as XDM nodes.

In Saxon, all XDM nodes are represented internally using the interface NodeInfo, which is exposed in the public API using the class XdmNode. Saxon provides a number of implementations of the NodeInfo interface, including implementations that wrap third-party tree models.

In principle it is possible for third parties to provide additional implementations of the NodeInfo interface. However, this is a complex undertaking.

In this section:

Choosing a tree model
Third-party object models: Axiom, DOM, JDOM2, XOM, and DOM4J
The Domino tree model
Building XML trees programmatically
Preloading shared reference documents