Re: Help: transforming "sequence" into "all" content model.

Hi,

On Wed, 2002-05-08 at 11:41, Emer Magnani wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have an xml schema that defines elements using the "sequence" content
> model.  I am trying to modify the schema so that it allows child elements to
> appear in any order.  Here is sample element:
> 
code snipped.
> 
> Looking at the definition of the "all" content model, it appears to me that
> the "all" content model cannot be used to express such a hierarchical
> structure.  Is there any work around?

Yes, there are *some* workarounds which are not generic but may help is
some cases.

First, if you can (and accept to) change the structure of your markup,
you can add a container to make your structure fit into the xs:all mold:

<myNode>
  <propertyA/>
  <propertyB/>
  <subNodes>
    <myNode>...
  </subNodes>
</myNode>

would do the trick.

Alternatively, in your case, transforming propertyA and propertyB into
attributes would also allow to specify your content model with a
xs:choice.

Now, if you can't (or don't want to) change the structure of the
instance documents, the closest you can get to your document is through
using xs:choice:

<xs:element name="myNode>
  <xs:complexType>
    <xs:choice minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="0">
      <xs:element ref="propertyA"/>
      <xs:element ref="propertyB"/>
      <xs:element ref="myNode"/>
    </xs:choice>
  </xs:complexType>
</xs:element>

By doing so, you loose the constraint on propertyA and B occuring at
most one time. You can express this adding a constraint using a rule
based schema language such as schematron, but you may also have a
workaround hacking a xs:unique constraint and if you write:

<xs:element name="myNode>
  <xs:complexType>
    <xs:choice minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="0">
      <xs:element ref="propertyA"/>
      <xs:element ref="propertyB"/>
      <xs:element ref="myNode"/>
    </xs:choice>
  </xs:complexType>
  <xs:unique name="checkPropertyA">
    <xs:selector xpath=".">
    <xs:field xpath="propertyA">
  </xs:unique>
</xs:element>

There would be a violation of the xs:unique rule if the path identified
by xs:field had more than one occurrence for an occurrence of the path
identified by the xs:selector (ie in clear if there was more than one
propertyA element.

Note that the error messsage in this case will probably be very
confusing for a end user :-) ...

Hope this helps.

Eric

-- 
See you in Barcelona.
                              http://www.xmleurope.com/2002/schedule.asp
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Eric van der Vlist       http://xmlfr.org            http://dyomedea.com
http://xsltunit.org      http://4xt.org           http://examplotron.org
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Received on Saturday, 11 May 2002 18:02:25 UTC