Explosions and decompositions can also be specified in the XML file. Explosions are specified as part of a Graph, whereas decompositions are specified as part of an object. In both cases, the subgraph can either be specified fully inline, along with all its contents, or else as an href to a graph that has appeared earlier in the XML file. The latter is generally easier, and so it is advisable to sort graphs bottom-up, i.e. with the lowest subgraph first and the top-level graph last.

Here is an example of an explosion to the first graph from the second graph. Note that both subgraph (id1) and object (id2) are referenced with hrefs in the explosion.

<graph ... id="id1"> ... </graph>
<graph ...>
  <object ... id="id2"> ... </object>
  ...
  <explosion>
    <object href="#id2"/>
    <graph href="#id1"/>
  </explosion>
</graph>

Decompositions are specified as part of an object, as in the example below. Again, the first graph (id1) is the subgraph of the object.

<graph ... id="id1"> ... </graph>
<graph ...>
  <object ...>
    <slot> ... </slot> ...
    <graph href="#id1"/>
  </object>
</graph>