Introduction to Parameter Entities

This section describes each Parameter Entity in the OASIS (CALS) Table Exchange table model. (Note: The table modules come from external sources and are not maintained with the NLM DTD Suite; see the documentation provided by the authority responsible for the OASIS table model.)

A Parameter Entity is an XML syntactic construct that allows a name to be given to a collection of elements, attributes, or attribute values so that they can be referred to by name rather than have their members listed every time they are used. For example, the name %tbl.table.att; stands for all the attributes which may be associated with the <oasis:table> element.

Although the Parameter Entities are declared in different modules, they are described here in alphabetical order of their DTD names (i.e., Parameter Entity type names). The DTD name is the shorter machine-readable name used in DTD fragments and schemas and by software; for example, the DTD name %tbl.entry.mdl; is used for the Parameter Entity named Table Entry Model (OASIS Table Model). Parameter Entity names always begin with a percent sign and end with a semi-colon.

Each Parameter Entity is described by a separate HTML page, where the heading for the page displays the Parameter Entity’s DTD name followed by a more descriptive name. The rest of the Parameter Entity description page discusses aspects of the Parameter Entity and its usage. These sections within the page always appear in the following order although any given Parameter Entity description may not contain all the sections: