[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: XML schema type question
Thanks, Jeni. This seems a good approach. Your patient and thoughtful responses on this list to various practical and theoretical questions are greatly appreciated I think one of the reasons this kind of thing is difficult is that there is only a way to distinguish between the type of an element (including its attributes and outside-the-angle-brackets content) and the type of the content alone. If this were possible, then you would be able to say that in general, the element foo supported attributes a and b, and allowed anyType for content, and a particular instance element named foo had content of type xsd:boolean. So along with xsi:type it would be nice to have xsi:content-type. What I wound up doing is cruder -- I used an no-attribute intermediate element, as in <complexType name="fooType"> <sequence> <element name="value" type="anyType"/> </sequence> <attribute name="a" ...> <attribute name="b" ...> </complexType> <element name="foo" type="fooType"> and in the instance <foo a="x" b="y"><value xsi:type="xsd:boolean">true</value></foo> <foo a="xx" b="yy"> <value xsi:type="someComplexType> <someComplexElt>...</someComplexElt> </value> </foo> Jeff ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jeni Tennison" <jeni@j...> To: "Jeff Greif" <jgreif@a...> Cc: <xml-dev@l...> Sent: Friday, September 27, 2002 2:11 AM Subject: Re: XML schema type question > Hi Jeff, > > > I've seen the XML Schema Type Library's "text" type, supporting > > arbitrary mixed content. I have been unable to figure out how to > > define a complex type whose contents are any simple type value or > > any single element, but not a mixture, where an element of this > > special type has a certain set of attributes That is, I'm trying to > > define > > > > <element name="foo"> > > <complexType > > > ??? some kind of restriction of anyType with either simple or complex content > > <restriction base="anyType"> > > ??? > > <attribute name="a" ...> > > <attribute name="b" ...> > > </restriction> > > ??? > > </complexType> > > </element> > > > > so I can say in instance docs > > > > <fooList> > > <foo a="x" b="y" xsi:type="xsd:boolean">true</foo> > > <foo a="xx" b="yy" xsi:type="SomeComplexType"> > > <someComplexType>...</someComplexType> > > </foo> > > ... > > </fooList> > > I don't think that you can do precisely what you want, particularly > because if you do xsi:type="xs:boolean" then you're saying "the foo > element is (the simple type) xs:boolean", which isn't true because it > has attributes. > > What you can do, I think, is as follows. Start off with a general > complex type for your element which is *mixed* (allows both text and > element content) and has the attributes that you want to be common to > all your foo elements: > > <xs:element name="foo" type="_fooType" /> > > <xs:complexType name="_fooType" abstract="true" mixed="true"> > <xs:attribute name="a" type="xs:string" /> > <xs:attribute name="b" type="xs:string" /> > </xs:complexType> > > You can then derive, by restriction, from that type in two ways. > First, you can derive types that have complex content and *aren't* > mixed (don't have textual content): > > <xs:complexType name="_fooComplexContentType" abstract="true"> > <xs:complexContent> > <xs:restriction base="_fooType" /> > </xs:complexContent> > </xs:complexType> > > Second, you can derive types that have simple content of a type of > your choice: > > <xs:complexType name="_fooSimpleContentType" abstract="true"> > <xs:simpleContent> > <xs:restriction base="_fooType"> > <xs:simpleType> > <xs:restriction base="_fooSimpleType" /> > </xs:simpleType> > </xs:restriction> > </xs:simpleContent> > </xs:complexType> > > <xs:simpleType name="_fooSimpleType"> > ... > </xs:simpleType> > > Finally, you can derive the concrete types that you want to use in > your instance from these types, by extension (to add element content > to the empty _fooComplexContentType) or restriction (to specify the > allowed values of the _fooSimpleType). > > (It's *so* much easier in RELAX NG...) > > Cheers, > > Jeni > > --- > Jeni Tennison > http://www.jenitennison.com/ > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > The xml-dev list is sponsored by XML.org <http://www.xml.org>, an > initiative of OASIS <http://www.oasis-open.org> > > The list archives are at http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/ > > To subscribe or unsubscribe from this list use the subscription > manager: <http://lists.xml.org/ob/adm.pl> > > >
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