RE: determine root element in the xml from schema

I agree with you: it's useful to be able to specify which element
declaration you are validating against. I don't think there's anything in
XML Schema itself that prevents this, it's a question of whether your chosen
schema validator gives you a suitable interface.

Michael Kay

# -----Original Message-----
# From: Mik Lernout [mailto:mik@futurestreet.org]
# Sent: 07 March 2004 12:10
# To: Michael Kay
# Cc: 'Lingzhi Zhang'; 'dev xmlschema'
# Subject: Re: determine root element in the xml from schema
# 
# I do agree with Stephen/Lingzhi Zhang here: in a normal use case of
# XMLSchema you will want to confine validation to only one valid
# root-element. The only reason to register multiple global elements would
# be to be able to use them when importing/including the schema, when
# refering to the element from within the schema, ... There is a big
# secuity / application integrity aspect that is touched here as well: it
# is pretty typical for applications to use XMLSchema for validation and
# it would be very easy to bypass this validation completetly by using a
# root element that is also registered globally but not "intended" to be
# used as a root element.
# 
# Michael: I agree with you that a schema should be able to match more
# than one instance document, but I do also believe that it should only be
# able to match only one "type" of instance document. If you have a look
# at the "Purchase Order Schema" in the primer spec, do you think it is
# the intention of the schema writer to be able to validate
# "<comment>abc</comment>" as a valid instance of this schema? Or that the
# application that will validate this will be constructed to be able to
# cope with this instance?
# 
# Maybe I am completely off-base/confused here and this kind of
# "unpredictable behaviour" is intended by the creators of the spec, but
# then don't we have a serious communication problem in how the spec is
# being read by the people who are writing XMLSchema validators and
# applications? If this would be the case it would seem for example
# logically to be able to mark, when validating, the root-element you wish
# to validate against like in: validator.validate(po.xsd,
# 'purchaseOrder'). Why isn't this the case?
# 
# How do other people feel about this?
# 
# Mik
# 
# Michael Kay wrote:
# 
# >You are correct to say that both these instance documents are valid
# against
# >this schema.
# >
# >The word "ambiguity" has a fairly technical meaning when discussing
# >grammars, and it's not considered an "ambiguity" that more than one
# instance
# >document should match the same schema. In fact, it's a rather essential
# >feature.
# >
# >But it is sometimes a usability problem that you can't easily constrain
# what
# >the document element should be (it can be any element that is globally
# >declared).
# >
# >Michael Kay
# >
# ># -----Original Message-----
# ># From: xmlschema-dev-request@w3.org [mailto:xmlschema-dev-
# request@w3.org]
# ># On Behalf Of Lingzhi Zhang
# ># Sent: 06 March 2004 23:41
# ># To: dev xmlschema
# ># Subject: determine root element in the xml from schema
# >#
# >#
# >#
# ># Hi,
# >#
# ># I am confused of how to determine root element in the xml from a given
# ># schema. It seems to me there is "ambiguity".
# >#
# ># Say if we have schema like:
# ># <schema ...>
# >#     <element name="A">
# ># 	<complexType>
# ># 	...
# ># 	    <element ref="B"/>
# ># 	...
# ># 	<complexType>
# >#     </element>
# >#     <element name="B"/>
# ># <schema>
# >#
# ># Either xml:
# ># <A><B></B></A>
# >#
# ># or xml:
# ># <B></B>
# >#
# ># would be valid xml against the schema. So either A or B could be root
# ># element in the xml. By just looking at the schema without looking at
# xml,
# ># we can't tell which on would be root element in the xml. However, if a
# ># user defines that schema, he/she usually means that A is the root.
# Isn't
# ># it "ambiguous"?
# >#
# ># Stephen
# >
# >
# >.
# >
# >
# >
#

Received on Sunday, 7 March 2004 10:17:06 UTC