The resolveExternals property returns a boolean value indicating whether external definitions (resolvable namespaces, DTD external subsets, and external entity references) are to be resolved at parse time, independent of validation.

When resolveExternals is set to true (the default), external definitions are resolved at parse time. This allows default attributes and data types to be defined on elements from the schema, and allows use of the DTD as an include mechanism.

The setting is independent of whether validation is to be performed, as indicated by the validateOnParse property. If externals cannot be resolved during validation, a validation error occurs. When the setting is false, externals are not resolved and validation does not take place.

A resolvable namespace is indicated by a namespace URI beginning with 'x-schema:' as its prefix.

The following code sets the resolveExternals property to false before loading an XML document.

Code (JavaScript):
xml_doc = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM");
xml_doc.async = false;
xml_doc.resolveExternals = false;
xml_doc.load("albums.xml");

This property is a Microsoft extension to the W3C DOM.