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Re: Generating Trees from XML Schema

• To: xml-dev@l...
• Subject: Re: Generating Trees from XML Schema
• From: "G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@C...>
• Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2003 13:11:54 -0500
• In-reply-to: <15725CF6AFE2F34DB8A5B4770B7334EE03F9F066@h...>

At 2003-12-15 11:08 -0600, Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote:
>The subject is misleading because I don't have
>a more precise term for the question, in fact,
>that is part of the question:
>
>1.  Is there a means to generate a complete
>     node list (all elements and attributes regardless
>     of structure) for a given XML Schema including
>     restrictions, extensions, etc?  In other words,
>     any element or attribute that the Schema validly
>     declares?

I've not heard of a general-purpose tool for all schemas.

In the UBL project I created a tool that read an instance and enumerated 
all of the possible XPath expressions for the elements and attributes 
found.  This summary was incredibly useful for non-technical participants 
who could not grok a schema expression, but they *easily* understood an 
enumeration of all possible XPath expressions for elements and attributes 
because the hierarchy is explicit.

I presented this at XML'2003 last week.  The enumerations were called "key 
references" in the documentation but were called "bang numbers" 
colloquially (the enumerations are expressed between two exclamation marks).

>2.  Is there a name for such a thing?

In UBL we called these "the XPath files" and each one reflected one line 
per XPath expression associated with its bang number (enumeration).

>3.  Are there existing products that do this
>     and emit this list?  Open source preferred.

In Crane's free resources section of our web site, in the LiterateXSLT 
package, you will find a couple of stylesheets for enumerating the XPaths 
for sample instances.  You might find these helpful as a start, though they 
don't deal with schemas so you might find them only of limited use.

Privately I have an internal-only collection of more mature stylesheets 
that does this for regularly structured schema expressions and I use them 
for competitive advantage in the commercial side of my work in describing 
formatting specifications and fulfilling stylesheet writing projects with 
my customers.

I hope this helps.

..................... Ken

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• References:
  • Generating Trees from XML Schema
    • From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...>

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