XML Schema

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Draft

Definition

“XML Schema: Structures specifies the XML Schema definition language, which offers facilities for describing the structure and constraining the contents of XML 1.0 documents, including those which exploit the XML namespace facility. The schema language, which is itself represented in XML 1.0 and uses namespaces, substantially reconstructs and considerably extends the capabilities found in XML 1.0 document type definitions (DTDs).”(XML Schema Part 1: Structures Second Edition)

“An XML Schema consists of components such as type definitions and element declarations. These can be used to assess the validity of well-formed element and attribute information items (as defined in [XML-Infoset]), and furthermore may specify augmentations to those items and their descendants.”(XML Schema Part 1: Structures Second Edition)

XML Schema is considerably more complex than the Document Type Definition (DTD) and less elegant than Relax NG

Major components of XML Schema

(to be written)


Tools

Editors

DTD to XSD Conversion tools

Online
  • Online XML Utilities from HitSoftware let's you convert a DTD (and the other way round) online (free of charge)
Free tools that need some installation skills
  • dtd2x Free Java class. End users can lauch the class through an HTML page (tested on win XP).
  • Trang (written by James Clark). Multi-format schema converter based on RELAX NG. Multiplatform Java-based. (Tested, works).

In education

Certain educational modeling languages use XML Schema, e.g.

Links