A Tutorial on XSD Files

You create an XML Schema Document (XSD) any time you want to enforce a valid schema within your XML documents. The purpose of the XSD is to ensure that any XML document calling that XSD is well-formed, and that only permitted elements and attributes are added to the document. The XSD also ensures all XML documents created or used by a software application can communicate with other applications as expected, and that the data communication is secure between applications.

Instructions

Create New Web Project

1. Click the "Start" menu, "All Programs" and click "Microsoft Visual Studio 2010."

2. Click "New Web Project" from the "File" menu.

3. Click "ASP.NET Empty Web Project" from the list of templates and enter a name of your choice in the text box provided.

4. Click the "OK" button.

Add XML Files

1. Right-click the project name in the Solution Explorer.

2. Click "Add," then "New Item..." from the menu.

3. Click "XML File" from the list and click the "OK" button.

4. Click "Add," then "Folder" and name the folder "XSchema."

5. Right-click on the "XSchema" folder; click "Add" and then "New Item..." from the menu.

6. Click to highlight "XML File" and change the .XML extension to .XSD; then click the "OK" button.

Write the XML Tags

1. Double-click the "XmlFile2.xsd" file and type the following:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

   <xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">

   <xsd:element name="customer">

   <xsd:complexType>

   <xsd:sequence>

   <xsd:element name="firstname" type="xsd:string" />

   <xsd:element name="lastname" type="xsd:string" />

   <xsd:element name="joindate" type="xsd:date" />

   </xsd:sequence>

   </xsd:complexType>

   </xsd:element>

   </xsd:schema>

2. Double-click the XmlFile1.xml" file and type the following where "server_name" is the domain_name is the DNS name of the location where you intend to upload the files:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

   <customer xmlns="http://domain_name/XSchema"

   xmlns:xsi="http://domain_name/XSchema"

   xsi="http://domain_name/XSchema XMLFile2.xsd">

   <firstname>John</firstname>

   <lastname>Smith</lastname>

   <joindate>2010-01</joindate>

   </customer>

3. Upload the files to your web server and verify that the "XMLFile1.xml" document validates by either submitting through a free service such as Validome.com or by writing code to handle the validation (see Resources).

Tips & Warnings

• You can create XML documents and DTDs in a variety of other development environments (e.g, Dreamweaver, Eclipse) or using a plain text editor.

References

• W3Schools: XML Schema Tutorial
• World Wide Web Consortium: W3C XML Schema

Resources

• Validome: DTD and Schema Validator
• CodeGuru: Validation of XML with XSD