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A short introduction to the use of XML in the
Vindolanda website, with links to the XML files, EpiDoc DTD, stylesheets
and documentation
The Vindolanda Tablets database is a 4D database running on a
Macintosh server. Tablet metadata, such as classification information,
were imported directly into the database. However, because the formatting
of the tablet text (the commentary, the Latin, the English translations,
and the notes) had to be flexible, an XML file containing the text
elements was created for each tablet. The HTML that is displayed on this
website was then generated from the XML files and imported into the 4D
database. An added benefit of creating XML records of the Vindolanda
tablets is that they now exist in a generic format (following the EpiDoc
DTD conventions) and can be downloaded and used freely.
All of the Vindolanda XML files are available here for
downloading. Please see the following links for the XML as well as for
the DTD, stylesheets, tools, and documentation
XML
There is one XML file for each tablet, named with the TVII
tablet number. You can either browse the directory and download
individual files
or you can download all 455 XML files as a tar archive.
Browse a directory of
individual tablets. NOTE: Many browsers will have trouble displaying the DTD. Right-click (or command-click) on the link to save the file to disk.
Download a tar
archive of all the files.
DTD
The DTD followed in creating the Vindolanda XML files is the
EpiDoc DTD version 1.0. Some modifications of the
official DTD have been made.
View the DTD (tei-epidoc.dtd) or the same in
TEXT format (tei-epidoc-dtd.txt).
For more information on the EpiDoc DTD, including the
official guidelines, see the EpiDoc homepage. The EpiDoc
guidlines followed here, the latest available at the time, are those of
May 8 2002.
NOTE: In creating the Vindolanda XML files, only a subset of
the EpiDoc recommendations were implemented. To see where Vindolanda XML
and EpiDoc differ, please see this comparison of epigraphic
print conventions, EpiDoc conventions, and Vindolanda conventions.
XSL
The Vindolanda XML was transformed using Apache's Xalan XSL
processor (Java version). For more information about this freeware, see the Xalan homepage.
Vindolanda's XSL stylesheet (elements only) can be viewed here
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