Help, about Schema

Hi ,

I have an xml file which has the following requirement :

A root node will have :
i> one or more required nodes (can occurs 1 or n times) and
ii> some optional nodes (can occurs 0 or 1 times) and
iii> some optional nodes (can occurs 0 or n times) and
iiii> all the nodes are in any orders.

e.g.

<root>
<title>abc</title>
<creator>benny</creator>
<creator>danny</creator>
<date>yyyy-mm-dd</date>
</root>

notes:
the title node is a required node (occurs 1 or n times)
the creator nodes are optional nodes (occurs 0 or n times)
the date node is a node that cannot be repeated (occurs 0 or 1 times)
all these nodes can list in any order.


I'm not able to create a schema with the above restrction using the existing XSD indicaters( "All", "choice" or "sequence") .

hope somebody can give me some idea

The first part of your question talks about optional nodes (elements), but it is not clear if you have a specfic list of these, or if users could potentially have any named node.

Its not possible to include unknown elements (nodes) in a Schema, so you will have to provide (in the Schema) every possible element name that you want to verify.

If you only have a few named nodes, such as title, creator and date, then simply include them in the Schema. The required node needs minOccurs=1 and maxOccurs="unbounded". The optional nodes can have the minOccurs and maxOccurs set appropriately.

Since the nodes can list in any order, you do not want a sequence, and you are not requiring every one, so All is not appropriate. What you do is to use choice, and treat each element type as a group, so that the different minOccurs and maxOccurs can be applied.

How about this for your example:

<xs:element name="root">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:choice minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="unbounded">
<xs:choice maxOccurs="unbounded" minOccurs="1">
<xs:element name="title" type="xs:string" />
</xs:choice>
<xs:choice minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded">
<xs:element name="creator" type="xs:string" />
</xs:choice>
<xs:choice minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1">
<xs:element name="date" type="xs:string" />
</xs:choice>
</xs:choice>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>

I'm no expert, so someone can corect me if its wrong, but why not try with a few sample files and see if it validates them?

Dear Bennych and DVDcontrol,

I am sorry to say that the given solution is not working.

When i gave
<root>
<title>aa</title>
<date>13092005</date>
<date>14092005</date>
</root>

the schema is not rejecting. Two date elements should not be allowed.

I am facing the same problem right now. If you already have any other solution please send me. Any help in this regard will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.