Xml Data Binding Performance

Contents

Capability Summary

A quick tick sheet showing the supported features.

Capability Details

A more detail breakdown of the supported features.

Type Mappings

The mappings used to go from XSD types to native language types.

Performance

Detailed performance figures for each language, using various file sizes and types.

 

Capability Summary

Liquid XML Data Binding - Supported Languages
C# (.Net)
Java
C++ (Win32, Linux, Solaris etc.)
VB .Net
Visual Basic 6
Silverlight 2 (C# & VB.Net)

 

Liquid XML Data Binding	Generated Successfully	Supported in the code
ComplexType Groups
Sequence
Choice
All
Multiple Models, same complextype
Types
Hex/Base64
Date/Time/gMonthDay etc.
Collections of primitives
All primitive data types		*1
unions		*2
any
anyAttribute
default values
Pad chars (&<>" etc.)	N/A
Strongly Typed Output	N/A
Facets
fractionDigits
length
maxExclusive
minExclusive
maxInclusive
minInclusive
maxLength
minLength
pattern		*3
totalDigits
whiteSpace
Cardinality
Optional
Mandatory
Multiple
Enumeration's
Enumerated Attributes
Enumerated Elements
0-n Enumerated Elements
Documentation
Documentation Generation
ComplexContent
extension
restriction		*4
Different base model types
Schema
Namespace
Import
Include
groups
Recursively defined elements
substitutionGroups
Invalid names for the language
Elements & attributes with same name
Mixed elements		*5

*1 All data types are supported but the validation rules are not applied to all of the types.
*2 Treated as strings
*3 Supported on some data types
*4 Allows child elements that have been restricted.
*5 Can't handle mixed content like <H1>text<B>more text</B>Some More Text</H1> 'text' & 'Some More Text' get concatenated.

Capability Details

Feature	Support provided in C++, C#, Java & VB 6
Complex type groups
Sequence	A Complex Type containing the sub item <sequence>
	Fully Supported - validates order of sub elements
0-1	The sequence is optional within the containing Complex Type
	Fully Supported
1	The sequence is mandatory within the containing Complex Type
	Fully Supported
0-n	There may be 0 or multiple instance of the sequence within the containing Complex Type
	Fully Supported - creates a strongly typed collection
Choice	A Complex Type containing the sub item <choice>
	Fully Supported
0-1	The choice is optional within the containing Complex Type
	Fully Supported
1	The choice is mandatory within the containing Complex Type
	Fully Supported
0-n	There may be 0 or multiple instance of the choice within the containing Complex Type
	Fully Supported - creates a strongly typed collection
All	A Complex Type containing the sub item <all>
	Fully Supported
0-1	The sequence is optional within the containing Complex Type
	Fully Supported
1	The sequence is mandatory within the containing Complex Type
	Fully Supported
0-n	There may be 0 or multiple instance of the sequence within the containing Complex Type
	Fully Supported - creates a strongly typed collection
Multiple Models	A choice that contains a sequence
	Fully Supported - Ensures that the rules for each contained type are obeyed. See all/choice/sequences
any	Enables any element from the specified namespace(s) to appear in the containing <sequence> or <choice> element
	Fully Supported - Allows runtime elements to be added, including namespace, and namespace validation
unions	An attribute type can contain either a number or the sting 'xxx'
	Represented as a string, no validation performed
anyAttribute	Enables any attribute from the specified namespace(s) to appear in the containing <complexType> element or in the containing <attributeGroup> element
	Fully Supported - Allows runtime elements to be added, including namespace, and namespace validation
default values	Gives the default value to a attribute or element
	Fully Supported
Pad chars (&<>" etc)	Escape invalid XML characters
	Fully Supported
Strongly Typed Output	Provide classes that are strongly typed, i.e. all the schema attributes and elements are represented by appropriate primitive types for the given language
	Fully Supported - all types are strongly typed (extended types may be treated as objects in VB6 due to its lack of proper inheritance).
Enumerations
Enumerated Attributes	A limited list of values is allowed for a given attribute
	Fully Supported
Enumerated Elements	A limited list of values is allowed for a given element
	Fully Supported
0-n Enumerated Elements	A collection of a limited list of values is allowed for a given element
	Fully Supported - creates a strongly typed collection
Documentation
Documentation Generation	Is Documentation for the library is generated
	Fully Supported - creates html & compiled html files (.chm) using MS Help workshop 1.3
Schema comments	The comments from the schema get incorporated into the documentation
	Coming Soon
complexContent
extension	An existing Complex Type may be extended, adding new elements & attributes to its existing ones. The extended versions may be used in place of the base type
	Fully Supported
restriction	An existing Complex Type may be restricted to create a new one that has a subset of the properties of the original. The extended versions may be used in place of the base type
	Partial Support - Generates working code, but it will validate XML documents containing restricted elements, and allow the construction of XML documents with restricted elements in them
Different base model types	i.e. a element containing a choice is extended with an element containing a sequence
	Fully Supported
Schema
Namespace	The schema contains elements and attributes from a number of different namespace
	Fully Supported - each element is aware of the namespace it is contained within. This is also true of runtime elements (see All, and anyAttribute)
Import	Existing schemas may be imported into the current schema file
	Fully Supported
Include	Existing schemas may be included into the current schema file
	Fully Supported
groups	Groups a set of element declarations so that they can be incorporated as a group into complex type definitions
	Fully Supported
Recursive elements	I.e. an element is defined in terms of itself
	Fully Supported
substitutionGroups	Indicates the name of an element for which this element can be substituted. This element must have the same type or a type derived from the type of the specified element.
	This attribute can be used on any element if the referring element is declared at the global level (parent is <schema> element)
	Fully Supported - these resemble a choice in the generated code
Invalid names	Element & Attribute names in the schema that are invalid in the target language
	Fully Supported - all invalid names are re-mapped, a mapping file is written out, allowing the default mappings to be changed. This includes making duplicate, long names, and reserved words safe

Type Mappings

Data Types	Facets	C++	C# and VB .Net	Java	VB 6
anyType anyURI ENTITIES ENTITY IDREFS IDREF ID language normalizedString NOTATION NMTOKENS NMTOKEN NCName Name Qname token string	length maxLength minLength pattern whiteSpace	STL string	String	String	String
hexBinary base64Binary	length maxLength minLength whiteSpace	CBinaryData*	BinaryData*	BinaryData*	BinaryData*
byte	maxExclusive minExclusive maxInclusive minInclusive whiteSpace	BYTE	SByte	Byte	Integer
short	maxExclusive minExclusive maxInclusive minInclusive whiteSpace	SHORT	Int16	Short	Integer
int	maxExclusive minExclusive maxInclusive minInclusive whiteSpace	LONG	Int32	Integer	Long
longinteger negativeInteger nonPositiveInteger decimal	maxExclusive minExclusive maxInclusive minInclusive whiteSpace	LONGLONG	Int64	Long	Long
unsignedByte	maxExclusive minExclusive maxInclusive minInclusive whiteSpace	CHAR	Byte	Short	Integer
unsignedShort	maxExclusive minExclusive maxInclusive minInclusive whiteSpace	WORD	Uint16	Integer	Long
unsignedInt	maxExclusive minExclusive maxInclusive minInclusive whiteSpace	DWORD	Uint32	Long	Long
unsignedLong positiveInteger nonNegativeInteger	maxExclusive minExclusive maxInclusive minInclusive whiteSpace	DWORDLONG	Uint64	Long	Long
float	maxExclusive minExclusive maxInclusive minInclusive whiteSpace	float	Single	Float	Single
double	maxExclusive minExclusive maxInclusive minInclusive whiteSpace	double	Double	Double	Double
duration time	maxExclusive minExclusive maxInclusive minInclusive whiteSpace	CDateTimeSpan*	XmlDateTimeSpan*	Duration*	DateTimeSpan*
datetime date gMonthYear gYearMonth gMonth gDay gYear	maxExclusive minExclusive maxInclusive minInclusive whiteSpace	CDateTime*	XmlDateTime*	DateTime*	DateTime*
boolean	whiteSpace	bool	Boolean	Boolean	Boolean

* Data Type provided within the Liquid Technologies Runtime

Performance Statistics

This section provides an overview of the performance you can expect from your the XML Data Binding libraries generated from Liquid XML Data Binder.

All tests were carried out on a Pentium 4 2.66 GHz processor with standard IDE drives & 512MB of memory, running Windows XP SP 2.

C++ Performance Summary

Built as UNICODE, and tested on Windows XP SP2, comparisons were done against MSXML 4 SP2 (running in a non-validating mode).

The generated Liquid C++ libraries have similar performance to the non-validating MSXML parser, and perform especially well on larger XML Files. On smaller files the difference in time is only a few milliseconds.

Considering the Liquid libraries are validating the data, we believe these results to be excellent.

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Performance Summary .Net

Comparisons were done against the standard XML DOM parser included with the .Net framework (running in a non-validating mode), C# & VB.Net exhibits the same behaviour.

The generated Liquid .Net libraries have similar performance to the standard non-validating .Net libraries, and perform especially well when writing XML data.

The Liquid libraries use the standard .Net XML parser internally, and so are always going to be adding some overhead to the reading process, however this overhead is very low.

Considering the Liquid libraries are validating the data, we believe these results to be excellent.

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Performance Summary Java

Built using JDK 1.4.2, comparisons were done against Xerces 1.4.3 (running in a non-validating mode).

The generated Liquid Java libraries have similar performance to the non-validating Xerces parser, and perform especially well when writing XML data.

The Liquid libraries use the standard Xerces parser internally, and so are always going to be adding some overhead to the reading process, however this overhead is very low.

Considering the Liquid libraries are validating the data, we believe these results to be excellent.

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Performance Summary - Visual Basic 6

Comparisons were done against MSXML 4 SP2 (running in a non-validating mode).

The generated Liquid Visual Basic libraries are slower than the non-validating MSXML parser. However, we are comparing a native Visual Basic solution with a highly optimised solution written in C++.

Looking at the actual timings, the difference though significant still provides a usable solution. If performance over ease of use is your primary concern then switching to the C++ libraries would provide a more suitable solution. This is a common trade off for Visual Basic developments.

Considering the Liquid libraries are validating the data, we believe these results to be acceptable.