The markup declarations contained or pointed to by the document type declaration must be well-formed

Question

I have this xml document:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE catalog SYSTEM "plantdtd.dtd">
<catalog>
<title>Flowers of the week</title>
<plant id="A1">
    <name>Aloe vera</name>
    <climate>tropical</climate>
    <height>60-100cm</height>
    <usage>medicinal</usage>
    <image>aloevera.jpg</image>
</plant>
<plant id="A2">
    <name>Orchidaceae</name>
    <height>8-12in</height>
    <usage>medicinal</usage>
    <usage>decoration</usage>
    <image>Orchidaceae.jpg</image>
</plant>
</catalog>

I wrote a DTD like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>


<!DOCTYPE catalog SYSTEM "file:/home/p10398/plantdtd.dtd"
[
<!ELEMENT catalog(title,plant+)>
<!ELEMENT title(#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT plant(name,climate,height,usage,image)+>
<!ELEMENT name(#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT climate(#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT height(#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT usage(#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT image(#PCDATA)>
]>

Iam getting this error:

Fatal error:                                                                        Public ID: null                                                                  System ID: file:/home/p14524/plantdtd.dtd                                        Line number: 4                                                                   Column number: 3                                                                 Message: The markup declarations contained or pointed to by the document type  declaration must be well-formed.    

Can someone explain whay Iam getting this error? or the correct DTD?

EDITS and UPDATES: Ah! Thanks Daniel. Now the previous error is gone. My new DTD is

<!ELEMENT catalog (title,plant+)>
<!ELEMENT title (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT plant (name,climate,height,usage,image)>
<!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT climate (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT height (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT usage (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT image (#PCDATA)>

<!ATTLIST plant id ID #REQUIRED>

Iam getting this new error:

Line number: 18                                                                  Column number: 9                                                                 Message: The content of element type "plant" must match "(name,climate,height,usage,image)".

Answer 1

You need to remove the DOCTYPE from the DTD. You should also have spaces after the element names in the declarations.

New DTD

<!ELEMENT catalog (title,plant+)>
<!ELEMENT title (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT plant (name,climate,height,usage,image)+>
<!ELEMENT name (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT climate (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT height (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT usage (#PCDATA)>
<!ELEMENT image (#PCDATA)>

Now that the DTD is valid, you will see a few errors when validating your XML.

The first is that you need to declare the id attribute of the plant element. I'd suggest <!ATTLIST plant id ID #REQUIRED>.

The second is that climate is missing from the second plant. I'm not sure if that's an XML error or a DTD error. The element declaration for plant doesn't make a whole lot of sense though because it's those 5 elements in that order one or more times. If you need help with that piece, describe what plant should contain and I can help you write the right declaration.

Answer 2

"the markup declarations contained or pointed to by the document type declaration must be well formed" error

in my case i was behind a proxy so i guess it was causing issues

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE suite SYSTEM "http://testng.org/testng-1.0.dtd" >

so i changed it to https

<!DOCTYPE suite SYSTEM "https://testng.org/testng-1.0.dtd" >