Schema

Introduction

This package contains an implementation of the W3C XML Schema Language, a recommendation of the Worldwide Web Consortium available in three parts: XML Schema: Primer and XML Schema: Structures and XML Schema: Datatypes. We consider this implementation complete except for the limitations cited below.

We would very much appreciate feedback on the package via the &XercesCName; mailing list &XercesCEmailAddress; , and we encourage the submission of bugs as described in Bug-Reporting page. Please read this document before using this package.

Limitations

- Due to the way in which the parser constructs content models for elements with complex content, specifying large values for the `minOccurs` or `maxOccurs` attributes may cause a stack overflow or very poor performance in the parser. Large values for `minOccurs` should be avoided, and `unbounded` should be used instead of a large value for `maxOccurs`.

Interpretation of Areas that are Unclear or Implementation-Dependent

keyref

We have interpreted the specs as requiring <keyref> Identity Constraints to refer to <key> or <unique> identity constraints within the scope of the elements to which the <keyref> is attached. This interpretation is at variance with the Schema Primer, which contains an example with a <keyref> declared on an element used inside the element of its corresponding <key>.

out-of-bound float values

For float data, the specs does not explicitly specify how to deal with out-of-bound data. Xerces converts these values as below

Values in range | Values converted
less than -3.402823466e+38 | -INF
greater than -1.175494351e-38 and less than -0 | -0
greater than +0 and less than +1.175494351e-38 | +0
greater than +3.402823466e+38 | +INF

The effect of this conversion would invalidate an instance data, for example, "1.1e-39", of a data type derived from float, with minExclusive value '+0', since "1.1e-39" is converted to "+0", which is the same as the minExclusive.

out-of-bound double values

Similarly, Xerces converts double values as below

Values in range | Values converted
less than -1.7976931348623158e+308 | -INF
greater than -2.2250738585072014e-308 and less than -0 | -0
greater than +0 and less than +2.2250738585072014e-308 | +0
greater than +1.7976931348623158e+308 | +INF

Usage

Here is an example how to turn on schema processing in DOMParser (default is off). Note that you must also turn on namespace support (default is off) for schema processing.

    // Instantiate the DOM parser.
    DOMParser parser;
    parser.setDoNamespaces(true);
    parser.setDoSchema(true);
    parser.parse(xmlFile);

Usage in SAXParser is similar, please refer to the sample program 'samples/SAXCount/SAXCount.cpp' for further reference.

Here is an example how to turn on schema processing in SAX2XMLReader (default is on). Note that namespace must be on (default is on) as well.

    SAX2XMLReader* parser = XMLReaderFactory::createXMLReader();
    parser->setFeature(XMLUni::fgSAX2CoreNameSpaces, true);
    parser->setFeature(XMLUni::fgXercesSchema, true);
    parser->parse(xmlFile);

Review the sample file, 'samples/data/personal-schema.xml' and 'samples/data/personal.xsd' for an example of an XML Schema grammar.

Associating Schema Grammar with instance document

Schema grammars can be associated with instance documents in two ways.

Specifying Schema Grammar through method calls:

An application developer may associate schemas with instance documents through methods `setExternalSchemaLocation` if they use namespaces, and `setExternalNoNamespaceSchemaLocation` otherwise. (For SAX2XMLReader, use the properties: "http://apache.org/xml/properties/schema/external-schemaLocation" and "http://apache.org/xml/properties/schema/external-noNamespaceSchemaLocation")

Here is an example with no target namespace:

    // Instantiate the DOM parser.
    DOMParser parser;
    parser.setDoNamespaces(true);
    parser.setDoSchema(true);
    parser.setExternalNoNamespaceSchemaLocation("personal.xsd");
    parser.parse("test.xml");

    // Instantiate the SAX2 XMLReader.
    SAX2XMLReader* parser = XMLReaderFactory::createXMLReader();
    XMLCh* propertyValue = XMLString::transcode("personal.xsd");
    ArrayJanitor<XMLCh> janValue(propertyValue);

    parser->setProperty(
           XMLUni::fgXercesSchemaExternalNoNameSpaceSchemaLocation,
           propertyValue);
    parser.parse("test.xml");

Here is an example with a target namespace. Note that it is an error to specify a different namespace in `setExternalSchemaLocation` than the target namespace defined in the Schema.

    // Instantiate the DOM parser.
    DOMParser parser;
    parser.setDoNamespaces(true);
    parser.setDoSchema(true);
    parser.setExternalSchemaLocation("http://my.com personal.xsd http://my2.com test2.xsd");
    parser.parse("test.xml");

    // Instantiate the SAX2 XMLReader.
    SAX2XMLReader* parser = XMLReaderFactory::createXMLReader();
    XMLCh* propertyValue = XMLString::transcode("http://my.com personal.xsd http://my2.com test2.xsd");
    ArrayJanitor<XMLCh> janValue(propertyValue);

    parser->setProperty(
           XMLCh XMLUni::fgXercesSchemaExternalSchemaLocation,
           propertyValue);
    parser.parse("test.xml");

Specifying Schema Grammar through attributes in the instance document:

If schema grammar was not specified externally through methods, then each instance document that uses XML Schema grammars must specify the location of the grammars it uses by using an xsi:schemaLocation attribute if they use namespaces, and xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation attribute otherwise.

Here is an example with no target namespace:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <personnel xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    	   xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation='personal.xsd'>
    ...
    </personnel>

Here is an example with a target namespace. Note that it is an error to specify a different namespace in xsi:schemaLocation attribute than the target namespace defined in the Schema.

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <personnel xmlns="http://my.com"
              xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    	   xsi:schemaLocation="http://my.com personal.xsd http://my2.com test2.xsd">
    ...
    </personnel>