Notation Declarations in XML
A notation declaration references a non-XML resource and specifies instructions for that resource in a non-XML context.
For example, if you want to include a special media type, you would add a notation declaration that specifies the media type and perhaps an application on the system that could be used to render that media.
The following code shows a fictitious notation declaration for the GIF image file type.
In this example, the fictitious file name gifview.exe represents a file that enables the viewing of GIF images.
<!NOTATION GIF SYSTEM "gifview.exe">
The following entity declaration references non-XML content:
<!ENTITY BulletGif SYSTEM "bullet1.gif" NDATA GIF>
In this example, an entity referenced as BulletGif has been declared to reference the file "bullet1.gif" on the current system as non-character data (NDATA) and of the GIF type.
If a notation for GIF appears in the file, the application can choose whether or not to use the notation reference for rendering that file.