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Altova tools include complete support for working with XML Schema throughout the software development process. Find out more about XML Schema and how Altova software simplifies and accelerates Schema development by following the links below.

According to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which approved XML Schema as an official recommendation in 2001, "XML Schemas express shared vocabularies and allow machines to carry out rules made by people. They provide a means for defining the structure, content, and semantics of XML documents." XML Schema uses XML syntax and is the XML-based alternative to the Document Type Definition (DTD). The W3C XML Schema specification brings important datatyping support and object-oriented principles to XML, allowing advanced data modeling and making XML even more useful in data-centric applications.

Elements and attributes in any XML document linked to a particular XML Schema must follow the defined structure to be considered valid. Using a particular XML Schema, software applications can exchange data in XML documents that conform to the schema – this ensures data validity and interoperability.

With all the power and flexibility of the XML Schema specification comes significant complexity, and developing XML Schemas can be a difficult task for even the most seasoned developers. The schema editor in Altova XMLSpy® 2008, simplifies XML Schema development, letting you manage the relationships and definitions in your schema in a visual manner, thus removing much of the complexity associated with hand-coding. As you develop your schema using the graphical Schema/WSDL view, the corresponding XML code can be viewed and edited in the advanced text view, allowing you to switch between views as necessary.

These features have made XMLSpy the world's leading visual XML Schema editor for designing, generating, converting, documenting, validating, and viewing XML Schemas. With XMLSpy you can create and edit standards-conformant XML Schemas quickly and easily.

By nature, XML is not a full programming language and therefore cannot be compiled or executed as a stand-alone executable file. To be truly effective, XML documents must be bound to an external software application or runtime environment. For this reason, automatic code generation is a must-have feature in any XML development environment. Built-in code generation frees software developers from the mundane task of writing low level infrastructure code, enabling you to focus on implementing critical business logic. This accelerates project development time from initial design to final implementation, resulting in substantial cost savings and time-to-market advantages.

XMLSpy includes a code generator that outputs class files in Java, C++, or C# according to a data model defined in an XML Schema. This code is royalty-free and may be used in your own software applications.

Code generation based on XML Schemas is also supported in Altova MapForce® 2008. You simply define XML/database/flat file/EDI/Excel 2007/Web service mappings using an intuitive visual interface, and MapForce autogenerates stylesheets or program code to implement the data transformation.

XML Schema enables a modular approach to designing advanced schemas by allowing developers to use xs:include, xs:import, and xs:redefine (IIR) to compose complex schemas out of simpler components. This modular approach to schema design provides several advantages, such as facilitating resource reuse, separating parts of a schema for simplification or business purposes, and extending existing schemas easily. Despite these advantages, the process of managing complex schemas that consist of multiple inter-dependent files is a real challenge, especially in team environments where multiple users manage schema development.

To that end, Altova has recently introduced SchemaAgent® 2008, a powerful new paradigm for modeling and managing advanced schemas in enterprise workgroups. SchemaAgent allows you to view and manage connections between schemas in a visual way. (SchemaAgent now also provides support for XSLT and WSDL files.)

To facilitate component reuse, SchemaAgent supports integration with the popular Schema Editor of XMLSpy, allowing you to access SchemaAgent schemas and their components (elements, attributes, groups, complex and simple types, etc.) when editing an XML Schema in XMLSpy. This greatly reduces the complexity associated with schema development and enables efficient reuse of information assets.

Since the majority of enterprise data is stored in relational databases, the importance of working with XML in harmony with databases is paramount. With support for all major relational databases, XMLSpy® 2008 can generate an XML Schema from a relational database, import data into an XML instance from a relational database using an XML Schema, and generate a relational database schema from an XML Schema.

In addition, Altova MapForce® 2008 provides powerful functionality for bi-directional mapping between XML Schemas and databases (as well as flat files, EDI, Excel 2007 (OOXML), and Web services).

With the increasing use of XML as a data format comes the need to integrate XML Schemas with other prevalent content models, the most popular being relational databases, flat file formats (text, CSV, etc.), and EDI formats such as UN/EDIFACT and ANSI X12. Such integration allows organizations to truly realize the value of interconnected business systems.

Altova MapForce® 2008 gives you the ability to integrate XML with all these formats, allowing you to easily define visual mappings and data processing rules for conversion projects. Then, MapForce® 2008 generates XSLT 1.0/2.0 or XQuery code to map XML Schemas to other XML Schemas, or Java, C++, or C# program code to map any combination of XML, database, flat file, EDI, Excel 2007, and Web service data. The additional functionality of the MapForce Engine allows you to execute one-time mappings and immediately save the output of a transformation.

To facilitate working with the most popular XML databases and servers, XMLSpy® 2008 includes support for XML Schema extensions for Oracle XML DB.

To accelerate XML Schema development and leverage existing resources, XMLSpy® 2008 can generate a standards-conformant XML Schema based on sample XML instance documents and can convert DTDs and other content models into XML Schemas.

In addition, Altova StyleVision® 2008 allows you to convert HTML pages to XML Web sites consisting of an XML Schema, an XSLT stylesheet, and XML data.

The Web Services Description Language (WSDL) uses XML Schema to define datatypes. The XMLSpy® 2008 Schema view also includes an integrated WSDL view that allows you to visualize, edit, and validate WSDL files with the same user-friendly features that have made XMLSpy so popular. The ability to develop WSDL files in the same environment as the associated XML Schemas and instance documents simplifies and accelerates the development of Web Services applications.

The Altova tools listed above for working with XML Schemas are available individually or as part of the MissionKit. Get up to 8 software tools for the price of 2 with the Altova® MissionKit™ 2008! The MissionKit bundles Altova's intelligent application development and data management tools to meet the needs of software architects and XML developers.

Download a free trial of the Altova® MissionKit™ 2008 today.