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RE: Schema definition of element with optional children

• To: "Michael Kay" <mike@s...>,<joe@r...>,<xml-dev@l...>
• Subject: RE: Schema definition of element with optional children
• From: "Stan Kitsis" <skits@m...>
• Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 11:47:37 -0700
• In-reply-to: <009501c66df0$0fe348d0$6401a8c0@turtle>
• Thread-index: AcZt7yyhvffkzYCpT1ytt63TmSyEWQAAGWCAAAoxuPA=
• Thread-topic: Schema definition of element with optional children

Actually, in this case, there is an Xsd solution.  It assumes that one
of the elements in the address sequence (when the address is not
deleted) is required and is of a simple type.  In the example below, I
picked addressLine1 as such an element.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xs:schema attributeFormDefault="unqualified" 
           elementFormDefault="qualified" 
           xmlns:tns="foo.com" 
           targetNamespace="foo.com"
           xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <xs:element name="address">
    <xs:complexType>
      <xs:sequence minOccurs="0">
        <xs:element name="addressLine1" type="xs:string" />
        <xs:element name="addressLine2" type="xs:string"/>
        <xs:element name="city" type="xs:string"/>
        <xs:element name="postCode" type="xs:string"/>
        <xs:element name="country" type="xs:string"/>
      </xs:sequence>
      <xs:attribute name="recordStatus" type="xs:string" />
    </xs:complexType>
    <xs:unique name="attrOrseq">
      <xs:selector xpath="."/>
      <xs:field xpath="tns:addressLine1|@recordStatus"/>
    </xs:unique>
  </xs:element>
</xs:schema>

The schema allows you to have either recordStatus attribute or
addressLine1 element, but not both.

Stan Kitsis
Microsoft Corporation

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Kay [mailto:mike@s...] 
Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2006 6:55 AM
To: joe@r...; xml-dev@l...
Subject: RE:  Schema definition of element with optional
children

You can't declare the type of the element to be conditional on one of
its
attributes, unless the attribute has the magic name xsi:type. Your only
options are (a) to define a type that's sufficiently permissive to allow
all
the options, and then do extra validation using some other technology,
or
(b) to use different element names for the two cases. Alternatively, in
this
case you could use the magic xsi:nil attribute to mean status="deleted".


Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joe Fawcett [mailto:joefawcett@h...] 
> Sent: 02 May 2006 14:48
> To: xml-dev@l...
> Subject:  Schema definition of element with optional children
> 
> Dear All
> 
> I'm struggling to find the best way to restrict an element 
> that holds address data.
> If the address is to be deleted it will look like this:
> <address recordStatus="deleted"/>
> 
> if it's new or an update it will be along the lines of:
> 
> <address recordStatus="inserted">
>   <addressLine1></addressLine1>
>   <addressLine2></addressLine2>
>   <city></city>
>   <postCode></postCode>
>   <country></country>
> </address>
> 
> with various fields being optional, these are UK addresses only.
> 
> What's the most efficient way to declare this using XSD only 
> as I believe I can't say, "if recordStatus = 'deleted' then..." etc?
> 
> I believe I have to give a choice of two types but this seems tedious?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Joe
> 
> 
> 
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