Introduction to Relations in XML Schema - Combining two different roots or hierarchies in a single XML Schema: the solution
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Now I am going to solve the problem explained in the previous section. The problem could be solved in several ways. But I prefer the following method:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
elementFormDefault="qualified" attributeFormDefault=
"unqualified">
<xs:complexType name="DeptType">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="Deptno" type="xs:int"/>
<xs:element name="Dname" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="Loc" type="xs:string"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="Organization">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="dept" type="DeptType" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
<xs:element name="Employee" type="EmployeeType"
maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:key name="PK_Dept_Deptno">
<xs:selector xpath=".//dept"/>
<xs:field xpath="Deptno"/>
</xs:key>
<xs:key name="PK_Employee_Empno">
<xs:selector xpath=".//Employee"/>
<xs:field xpath="Empno"/>
</xs:key>
</xs:element>
<xs:complexType name="EmployeeType">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="Empno" type="xs:int"/>
<xs:element name="Ename" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="Sal" type="xs:float"/>
<xs:element name="Deptno" type="xs:int"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:schema>
To understand the above schema, you should be familiar with “user-defined complex types” in XML schema. If you are not, I strongly suggest that you go through my series “Designing your own schema.”
I shall explain the above schema below.
Combining two different roots or hierarchies in a single XML Schema: explanation
This section explains the schema introduced in the previous section. Instead of explaining it all at once, let me explain it part by part. Let us consider the following fragment:
<xs:complexType name="DeptType">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="Deptno" type="xs:int"/>
<xs:element name="Dname" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="Loc" type="xs:string"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
The above code fragment defines a new user-defined complex type named “DeptType.” It internally contains three elements, namely “Deptno,” “Dname” and “Loc.” There exists another code fragment very similar to the one above:
<xs:complexType name="EmployeeType">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="Empno" type="xs:int"/>
<xs:element name="Ename" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="Sal" type="xs:float"/>
<xs:element name="Deptno" type="xs:int"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
The above code fragment defines a new user-defined complex type named “EmployeeType.” It internally contains four elements, namely “Empno,” “Ename,” “Sal” and “Deptno.” The above two are simply “data types.” We need to declare elements based on the above user-defined data types. Let us consider the following code fragment:
<xs:element name="Organization">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="dept" type="DeptType" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
<xs:element name="Employee" type="EmployeeType"
maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
.
.
.
</xs:element>
Within the above code fragment, you can observe that I defined a new root element called “Organization.” Within this root element, I defined two more elements, “dept” and “Employee,” based on the user-defined complex types explained previously. This creates a meaningful hierarchy having only one root at the top and any number of hierarchies from within the root element. What about our primary keys? They are defined as follows:
<xs:key name="PK_Dept_Deptno">
<xs:selector xpath=".//dept"/>
<xs:field xpath="Deptno"/>
</xs:key>
<xs:key name="PK_Employee_Empno">
<xs:selector xpath=".//Employee"/>
<xs:field xpath="Empno"/>
</xs:key>
Next: Defining a simple relation in XML Schema: XML Schema example >>
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