The P4 DTD

Moving from P3 to P4

If you are already using TEI P3 DTDs, and wish to upgrade to the new files, you can do so by either of the following methods:

• replace the system identifiers in your local files by a link to the new version at (mutatis mutandis) http://www.tei-c.org/Guidelines/DTD/tei2.dtd (see examples below);
• download and install all the new dtd files locally, changing the system identifiers to point to these local versions. The complete suite is available as a single zip file.

Neither the actual filenames (teicore2.dtd etc.) used nor the method of constructing application specific DTDs has changed with this release. For example, if you currently test files using a driver that begins

<!DOCTYPE TEI.2 SYSTEM "/home/wherever/mylocalteistuff/tei2.dtd" [
<!ENTITY % TEI.prose "INCLUDE" >
...
]><TEI.2>
...

and you have not yet changed the contents of home/wherever/mylocalteistuff, then you could experiment with the new DTDs simply by changing your driver file to reference the online version. The file would then begin:

<!DOCTYPE TEI.2 SYSTEM "http://www.tei-c.org/Guidelines/DTD/tei2.dtd" [
<!ENTITY % TEI.prose "INCLUDE" >
]>
...

If you want to test your material for XML conformance, you will first need to convert it to XML. No TEI specific tools are necessary for this job (but watch out that you don't mess up the upper/lowercase distinction in your tag and attribute names!). There is some more information about the process in the SGML-to-XML FAQ. Once you have an XML version of your data, the only change you need make in your TEI driver file will be like this:

<!DOCTYPE TEI.2 SYSTEM "http://www.tei-c.org/Guidelines/DTD/tei2.dtd" [
<!ENTITY % TEI.prose "INCLUDE" >
<!ENTITY % TEI.XML "INCLUDE">
...
]><TEI.2>
...

Once you have downloaded the DTD files and installed them locally, then you will need to change the URLs used in the examples above to point to local filestore. If you are using a catalog file, you will need to update that similarly. Exactly what changes you will need to make beyond the scope of this page, but any local XML/SGML expert should be able to assist: if stuck, send a plea for help to tei-tech@listserv.brown.edu!

The TEI editors are particularly anxious to receive reports of errors with documents that were regarded as valid by previous releases of the TEI DTDs, but which the new DTDs will not accept. Send feedback of any kind to editors@tei-c.org, or, if you want to discuss issues raised more widely with other TEI users, to tei-tech@listserv.brown.edu. Thank you!

The TEI DTD files

The following tables give for each of the files making up the current release:

1. the filename used in the release directory;
2. the type of declarations contained in the module;
3. the full name of the module, for use in constructing its Formal Public Identifer (FPI)
4. a link to the chapter or section in which it is defined

. To make up the Formal Public Identifier, the full name of the module should be prefixed by the string -//TEI P4// and the type of declarations contained, and suffixed by the string //EN. Thus the FPI for the first file listed below should be -//TEI P4//ELEMENTS Additional Element Set for Simple Analysis//EN. Each table corresponds with a single TEI module or `tag set' i.e. a group of related DTD fragments. Tables are listed in alphabetical order.

Two catalog files are provided with the TEI DTD fragments, one (catalog.tei) in SGML Open format; the other (teicatalog.xml) in XML Catalog format: either file may be used to specify the location of copies of the TEI DTD fragments stored locally, as further discussed in Section 2.10.4.