What comes first, the schema or the document

Hi

Now obviously I'm a beginner, I'm currently engrossed in
http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-0/

I have written a (very) simple validator using classes from the Java
jdk1.5.0_15 and I'm using this to play around with the examples in
that document.

I'm doing this because there may/will be a requirement to write xml
for my current project.

The question is, when you are 'designing' a new xml document/schema
which do you do first ?

I've started developing an xml document, then I will develop a schema
that can be used to validate this document.
Is this a sensible approach or do people usually do it the other way around ?

Is it reasonable to simply present a client with a schema and say
'your xml must comply with this' or is it better to give them an
example xml document and the schema to go with it so that they can see
what is required and also have the ability to validate the document
before transmitting it to us.

Apologies if these questions are too basic for the experts, if this is
not the place to ask such questions then rather than shout at me would
you be so kind as to redirect me to the appropriate list ?

many thanks

lyallex

Received on Friday, 11 July 2008 22:18:54 UTC