Methods and systems for preparing extensible markup language (XML) documents and for responding to XML requests

Abstract

Methods and systems for generating and sending an XML document are described. In a specific implementation, methods and systems for responding to an XML client request are described. In the described embodiment, an XML response generator is provided. The XML response generator responds to a client request without having to first build and save a hierarchical tree structure in memory that represents the response. The response generator includes one or more request method objects. There is one object for each particular type of client request that might be received. Each request method object knows and gathers the data that is needed to respond to its particular associated client request. In addition, the request method object knows a particular order that the information must be provided. An emitter object is provided and receives calls from the request method object. The calls include the data that is gathered by the request method object. The calls are made in a particular order and ensure that the hierarchical nature of the response that is being built is preserved. The emitter object translates the data that it receives into response portions that are in proper XML syntactic form. A body object is provided and manages a buffer. The body object receives calls from the emitter object that include the properly-formatted XML response portions. The response portions are placed in the buffer. When a defined buffer threshold is reached, the buffered response portions are sent to the client.

1 . A method of generating an XML document comprising: 
 preparing only a portion of an XML document;    sending said portion to a client; and    repeating said preparing and said sending until an entire XML document is sent to a client.