RE: XML within XML - includes, transcludes, whatever

Yes, MSXML supports the "XML-Data" schema notation [1] which introduced the
idea of "open content models" and these have the characteristic you
describe, namely they permit validation in the face of elements beyond those
explicitly listed in the schema.  

The new schema notation from the W3C [2] adds substantial facilities both in
the area of open content models and partial validation.  It allows the
schema author to control both where undeclared elements and attributes may
validly appear and also the extent to which they should be validated.

[1]  http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/NOTE-XML-data-0105/	(January 1998)
[2]  http://www.w3.org/XML/Group/Schemas.html

-----Original Message-----
From: Sean McGrath [mailto:sean@digitome.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 01, 2000 11:42 AM
To: xml-dist-app@w3.org
Subject: RE: XML within XML - includes, transcludes, whatever


At 12:59 PM 11/1/00 -0500, Gavin Thomas Nicol wrote:

>  In other words, read in the XML as a well-formed
>document, then apply validation to the bits you care about. The only
>thing you'd have to be a little careful of was namespaces.

Validating the bits you care about and ignoring the (well formed) bits
you don't is a very powerful idea. DTDs specifically disallowed this
sort of thing as validating parsers have to barf on occurences
of elements with undeclared element types. Having
said that, I remember using a version of msxml that had this
behavior...

Also, I seem to remember that Open Financial
Exchange of pre-history had the same idea. I think it is a great way of
retaining the interoperability benefits that validation provides
but remaining robust in the face of change. Not to
mention encouraging diversity and innovation and other
fundamentally good things.

Sean

Received on Wednesday, 1 November 2000 14:11:50 UTC