The markup declarations contained or pointed to by the document type declaration must be well-formed

Question

I have this xml document:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE catalog SYSTEM "plantdtd.dtd">
<catalog>
<title>Flowers of the week</title>
<plant id="A1">
    <name>Aloe vera</name>
    <climate>tropical</climate>
    <height>60-100cm</height>
    <usage>medicinal</usage>
    <image>aloevera.jpg</image>
</plant>
<plant id="A2">
    <name>Orchidaceae</name>
    <height>8-12in</height>
    <usage>medicinal</usage>
    <usage>decoration</usage>
    <image>Orchidaceae.jpg</image>
</plant>
</catalog>

I wrote a DTD like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>


<!DOCTYPE catalog SYSTEM "file:/home/p10398/plantdtd.dtd"
[
<!ELEMENT catalog(title,plant+)>
<!ELEMENT title(#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT plant(name,climate,height,usage,image)+>
<!ELEMENT name(#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT climate(#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT height(#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT usage(#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT image(#PCDATA)>
]>

Iam getting this error:

Fatal error:                                                                        Public ID: null                                                                  System ID: file:/home/p14524/plantdtd.dtd                                        Line number: 4                                                                   Column number: 3                                                                 Message: The markup declarations contained or pointed to by the document type  declaration must be well-formed.    

Can someone explain whay Iam getting this error? or the correct DTD?

EDITS and UPDATES: Ah! Thanks Daniel. Now the previous error is gone. My new DTD is

<!ELEMENT catalog (title,plant+)>
<!ELEMENT title (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT plant (name,climate,height,usage,image)>
<!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT climate (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT height (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT usage (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT image (#PCDATA)>

<!ATTLIST plant id ID #REQUIRED>

Iam getting this new error:

Line number: 18                                                                  Column number: 9                                                                 Message: The content of element type "plant" must match "(name,climate,height,usage,image)".

Solution

You need to remove the DOCTYPE from the DTD. You should also have spaces after the element names in the declarations.

New DTD

<!ELEMENT catalog (title,plant+)>
<!ELEMENT title (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT plant (name,climate,height,usage,image)+>
<!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT climate (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT height (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT usage (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT image (#PCDATA)>

Now that the DTD is valid, you will see a few errors when validating your XML.

The first is that you need to declare the id attribute of the plant element. I'd suggest <!ATTLIST plant id ID #REQUIRED>.

The second is that climate is missing from the second plant. I'm not sure if that's an XML error or a DTD error. The element declaration for plant doesn't make a whole lot of sense though because it's those 5 elements in that order one or more times. If you need help with that piece, describe what plant should contain and I can help you write the right declaration.

Comments

[isekaid_maou]

Can you please check the latest update of my question and answer back.

[Daniel Haley]

@RaviRishie - That error is what I was talking about in the last paragraph of my answer. Your second plant doesn't match (name,climate,height,usage,image) because it doesn't have a climate element. Is that element supposed to be optional? I also see it now has two usage elements. Maybe you'd rather use <!ELEMENT plant (name,climate?,height?,usage*,image*)> or something?

[isekaid_maou]

Thanks dude! Its working fine by mentioning the occurences here

[Daniel Haley]

@RaviRishie - Awesome! Glad I could help!

[isekaid_maou]

Please check this one too stackoverflow.com/questions/44344663/…