The Xerces Java Parser 1.4.4 supports the XML 1.0 recommendation and contains advanced parser functionality, such as support for the W3C's XML Schema recommendation version 1.0, DOM Level 2 version 1.0, and SAX Version 2, in addition to supporting the industry-standard DOM Level 1 and SAX version 1 APIs.

Note that because some of the standards are still not complete, the stable API will definitely be different from its current form in Xerces-J 1.4.4. This is your chance to give us feedback on the features that are important to you, and let us know whether the APIs that we are providing are the right ones. Please direct your feedback to the Xerces-J mailing list.

The Xerces 1.x codebase has been moved to a branch of the CVS module. In order to extract the Xerces 1.x code, you must specify the "xerces_j_1" branch using the "-r" option. For example, to extract the Java sources for Xerces 1.x in a directory called "xerces1", enter the following commands: (each "cvs" command is entered on a single line; the password for the cvs login is "anoncvs")

	cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.apache.org:/home/cvspublic login cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.apache.org:/home/cvspublic checkout -d xerces1 -r xerces_j_1 xml-xerces

The Xerces-J 1.4.4 release is available in both source code and precompiled binary (JAR files) form. Both Xerces-J packages are made available under the Apache Software License.

The rich generating and validating capabilities allow the Xerces-J Parser to be used for:

• Building XML-savvy Web servers.
• The next generation of vertical applications which will use XML as their data format.
• On-the-fly validation for creating XML editors.
• Ensuring the integrity of e-business data expressed in XML.
• Building truly internationalized XML applications.

This release includes full support for the W3C XML Schema Recommendation, except for limitations as described on the Schema Implementation Limitations page. We intend to remove these limitations and fix outstanding bugs in the next release of Xerces-J.

This release includes support for DOM Level 2 Core, Events, and Traversal and Range modules. The DOM Level 2 specification is now a W3C Recommendation.

This release includes support for the SAX Version 2 API's which have been finalized.

Xerces-J 1.4.4 uses a collection of methods to configure various settings in the parser. This release includes a new mechanism for setting parser switches. This mechanism uses the SAX2 configuration methods that are part of the XMLReader interface. We have defined a series of properties and features for the Xerces-J options.