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RE: Are people really using Identity constraints specified in

• To: <xml-dev@l...>
• Subject: RE: Are people really using Identity constraints specified in XML schema?
• From: "Roger L. Costello" <costello@m...>
• Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2004 09:10:50 -0400
• In-reply-to: <1092968133.41255ec53af69@m...>
• Thread-index: AcSGW8PmIn0KMG8yS92P6to5lVzOIwAVPBJQ

Hi Folks,

A few more thoughts.

1. Constraint Volatility: constraints range from highly dynamic business
rule constraints to static data constraints.

2. Constraint Stack: there are advantages to creating "layers of constraint
checking" based on the volatility of the constraints:

    a. Simpler design: since each layer has a 
       focused  set of constraints that it must
       address, this leads to simpler schemas.
    b. Improved Change Management: since volatile
       constraints are isolated it is easy to 
       replace them with new versions. 

[Analogy: the "constraint stack" is analogous to the 7 layer OSI Model.
Each layer of the model addresses specific concerns.]

3. Multi-Schema Design: the current practice is to create one schema to
implement all constraint checking[1].  Preference should be given to
multi-schema designs.

4. Typical Constraint Stack: below is a typical constraint stack. The higher
layers implement volatile constraints.  The lower layers implement static
constraints.

    Java (layer #4)
    Schematron (layer #3)
    XML Schema (layer #2)
    XML Schema (layer #1) 

Example:

A company has employees.  This is the current company policy with respect to
employee age requirements:

    - the minimum age of an employee must be 16.
    - employees under 18 must have parental consent.

Here is the constraint stack:

Java (layer #4) implements the constraint:
     verify that the employee has provided a value for <age>

Schematron (layer #3) implements the constraint: 
     IF <age> is less than 18 THEN exists(<parental-consent>)

XML Schema (layer #2) implements the constraint:
     verify that <age> is at least 16

XML Schema (layer #1) implements the constraint:
    verify that <age> is a nonNegativeInteger

Naturally, feel free to replace XML Schema with RelaxNG, Schematron with
XSLT, Java with C, C++, etc.  It is the layering approach that is of
importance, not the specific technologies employed.
 
Comments?

/Roger

[1] Importing/including other schemas is effectively a one schema strategy.

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