Schema Languages For Xml

Use of a SchemaLanguage? help to communicate the structure and meaning of the content of ExtensibleMarkupLanguage (XML) documents.

Initially, only DocumentTypeDefinition was available. And then WXS (W3C XML Schema) was accepted as an international standard specially designed for XML (see XmlSchema).

Unfortunately, WXS was perceived to be too complicated. A competing XML-based RelaxNg was considered and accepted first by OasisOrganization and later IsoOrganization.

The latest IsoOrganization DocumentSchemaDefinitionLanguages? addition is SchematronLanguage, which is said to be a rule based validation mechanism, and has "traction of its own" (XML growing pains article at http://www.adtmag.com/article.asp?id=10196)

Beginners' Corner

A tutorial with examples: http://www.xfront.com/xml-schema.html

Trade-offs in adopting the various SchemaLanguagesForXml

(To be continued...)

References

Newsgroup discussion on which schema to use: http://groups.google.com/groups?th=ef20426be5681fa

WikiPedia XML schema description http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_schema

CategoryXml