Method, system, and program for providing access to objects in a document

A system for determining a structure of objects in a document, comprising:

• means for, while scanning a document type declaration in the document, generating a handle addressing a each different object name in memory, wherein there are one or more instances of each different object name in the document, and wherein the handle for an object name is used for each instance of the object having that object name in the document;
• means for parsing the document to determine instances of objects within the document;
• means for parsing each instance of each object to determine whether a value is provided for the object;
• means for returning information on each instance of each object in the document by returning the handle addressing the object name of the object;
• and
• means for returning location information of the value for each object in the document having a value, wherein the returned information identifies the objects in the documents and the location of any values for identified objects in the document without returning a string comprising the value from the document.

An article of manufacture for use in determining a structure of objects in a document, the article of manufacture comprising computer usable media including at least one computer program embedded therein that causes the computer to perform:

• while scanning a document type declaration in the document, generating a handle addressing a each different object name in memory, wherein there are one or more instances of each different object name in the document, and wherein the handle for an object name is used for each instance of the object having that object name in the document;
• parsing the document to determine instances of objects within the document;
• parsing each instance of each object to determine whether a value is provided for the object;
• returning information on each instance of each object in the document by returning the handle addressing the object name of the object;
• and
• returning location information of the value for each object in the document having a value, wherein the returned information identifies the objects in the documents and the location of any values for identified objects in the document without returning a string comprising the value from the document.