newbie: how to create this kind of schema

[mcha226]

Hi All:
In my XML document, sometimes I have:

<a>xxxxxxxx</a>

and sometimes I have

<a><text>xxxxx xxxxx</text></a>

which can distinguish a long text and a ordinary string.

I am trying to come up with a general schema which will think both are
valid.
I tried to creat a type which can be used for this by using xs:choice.
However I am not really successful as my schema cannot pass the schema
validator.
Can anyone tell me how I can do that? Thanks.

 

[Henry S. Thompson]

In my XML document, sometimes I have:

<a>xxxxxxxx</a>

and sometimes I have

<a><text>xxxxx xxxxx</text></a>

<xs:element name="a">
<xs:complexType mixed="true">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="text"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>

Not perfect, as will allow e.g. <a>x<text>xxx xx</text>x</a> as well
as what you want, but closest you can get with W3C XML Schema.

ht
--
Henry S. Thompson, HCRC Language Technology Group, University of Edinburgh
Half-time member of W3C Team
2 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LW, SCOTLAND -- (44) 131 650-4440
Fax: (44) 131 650-4587, e-mail: (e-mail address removed)
URL: http://www.ltg.ed.ac.uk/~ht/
[mail really from me _always_ has this .sig -- mail without it is forged spam]

 

[Stan Kitsis [MSFT]]

The following blog posts describes different ways of achieving this:
http://blogs.msdn.com/xmlteam/archive/2004/12/30/344573.aspx

--
Stan Kitsis
Program Manager, XML Technologies
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Use of included script samples are subject to the terms specified at
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm

 

[mcha226]

Hehe, I am a newbie, that's why I just found out that the following
schema will not validate.
...
<xs:choice>
<xs:group ref="a"/>
<xs:group ref="b"/>
</xs:choice>
...
...
<xs:group name="a">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element ref="type"/>
<xs:element ref="gender"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:group>
<xs:group name="b">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element ref="type"/>
<xs:element ref="street"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:group>
...
...

So I can't really have 2 groups having the same element when I am
having a choice bewteen these 2 groups. Is this supposed to be the way
it is, and is there a way around it?
Cheers
Mark