Forum Moderators: open
Basically, what I want is the ability to specify a schema for this type of XML:
<container>
<preamble></preamble>
<someDataType1></someDataType1>
<someDataType2></someDataType2>
<someDataType1></someDataType1>
<someDataType3></someDataType3>
</container>
The idea is that the header will always be the first item, followed by an unordered list of subsequent items.
The problem comes when I try to specify that the preamble comes first, but anything goes after that.
<xs:all> [w3schools.com] allows arbitrary order. The problem is that I want to insist that the
<preamble>I can do it by enclosing the subsequent data in another container, but I'd like to try to avoid that if I can.
It does not look like you can have both an <xs:all> [w3schools.com] and an <xs:sequence> [w3schools.com] in the same <xs:complexType> [w3schools.com] element.
This is what I'd like to see:
<xs:element name="container">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="preamble"></xs:element>
<xs:all>
<xs:element name="someDataType1"></xs:element>
<xs:element name="someDataType2"></xs:element>
<xs:element name="someDataType3"></xs:element>
</xs:all>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
I hope that makes it clear. For the record, the schema above does not work. It is merely a way of specifying a concept.
This will work:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xs:complexType name="header">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="preamble"> </xs:element>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:complexType name="data">
<xs:all>
<xs:element name="data_item1"> </xs:element>
<xs:element name="data_item2"> </xs:element>
<xs:element name="data_item3"> </xs:element>
</xs:all>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="AutoBuildReadMe">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="head" type="header"/>
<xs:element name="body" type="data"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:schema>
However, this is NOT what I want. I don't want a "head" and a "body" section. I want to have their contents without the envelopes.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xs:group name="datagroup">
<xs:all>
<xs:element name="data_item1"/>
<xs:element name="data_item2"/>
<xs:element name="data_item3"/>
</xs:all>
</xs:group>
<xs:element name="AutoBuildReadMe">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="preamble"/>
<xs:group ref="datagroup"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:schema>
However, THIS will:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xs:group name="datagroup">
<xs:sequence> <!-- We use xs:sequence here, instead of xs:all -->
<xs:element name="data_item1"/>
<xs:element name="data_item2"/>
<xs:element name="data_item3"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:group>
<xs:element name="AutoBuildReadMe">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="preamble"/>
<xs:group ref="datagroup"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:schema>
I need to be able to allow the following fields to be randomly-ordered.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xs:element name="root">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="preamble"/>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:choice maxOccurs="unbounded">
<xs:element name="data1"/>
<xs:element name="data2"/>
<xs:element name="data3"/>
</xs:choice>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:schema>
The way this works is that the
<xs:choice/><xs:sequence/><xs:all/>
