[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: Using Wrapper Elements in Schemas - Any Best Practices?
Actually, I'd suggest that placing the duration element on each <symptom> would accomplish the same thing while allowing greater processing flexibility. That being said, I'd still recommend the container element approach (unless you're REALLLLY pressed for optimizations). The extra element certainly doesn't hurt, and it allows you to process the group as a list much more easily. Particularlay if you'll need to do any manual creation of the structure (some editors can be more helpful if they can identify lists). As a pure matter of style, I'd also suggest not using the plural of the element's names as the name of the container (<symptoms> in your example). Then you have to say things like "symptoms contains symtpoms", which isn't really what you mean. I'd go for something like <symptom_list> myself. Michael A. Rossi Computer Sciences Corporation mailto:mrossi@c... 856-983-4400 x4911 "Magick, Brian" <Brian.Magick@C To: xml-dev@l... OMPAQ.com> cc: Subject: Using Wrapper Elements in Schemas - Any Best 09/24/01 10:37 Practices? AM Are there any best practices for using wrapper elements in XML Schemas? We are having an internal debate on the merits of using wrappers, I summarize my opinions below. The debate??should a set of symptoms be represented by a series of symptom tags alone or should they be contained in a <symptoms> wrapper element. <symptoms> <symptom> This is symptom 1 </symptom> <symptom> This is symptom 2 </symptom> <symptom> This is symptom 3 </symptom> </symptoms> My initial thoughts: I think wrappers are useful when you need to group some tags and possibly need a lead wrapper element to capture some attributes or metadata. For example (yes this might be a bit silly) perhaps we want to know the symptoms based on how long they have been persisting. Maybe some symptoms have been around for 7 days and other for just 3. The following XML, using wrapper elements, accomplishes the description of this quite well. <symptoms duration="3"> <symptom>cough</symptom> <symptom>sneezing</symptom> <symptom>runny nose</symptom> </symptoms> <symptoms duration="7"> <symptom>dizziness</symptom> <symptom>stomach ache</symptom> </symptoms> Of course, this is just my opinion, and one I would like some community backing for before I espouse this as a "best practice" within my organization. This might just be a matter of style, but I'm interested in how other developers are determining this. Brian Magick
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