On 3 Jan, 22:47, xkenneth <xkenn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> =A0 =A0 I appreciate any help.
>
> =A0 =A0 So I'm working with the WITSML spec (http://www.witsml.org/). The
> witsml spec is just a large definition (tons of XML objects defined by
> XSD) for transmitting data in the oil industry. My basic question is,
> what can i do with these? I'm sort of a newbie to XML, and looking at
> an XSD file, all i can see is a class definition. My language of
> choice for my work is python. Just off the top of my head, it seems
> that I should be able to create XML data from XSD schemas just as you
> would create class objects from class definitions. Can anyone point me
> in the right direction?
>
> =A0 =A0 =A0 Overall, what can i do with these definitions?
>
> Regards,
> Kenneth Miller

An XML schema formally defines a set of constraints that an XML
instance document must satisfy in order to be used for its intended
purpose.  Such constraints include allowed element and attribute
names, their types and how often they occur.

Beyond describing the structure of valid instances, various tools can
validate that an XML instance conforms to its schema, thus removing
some of the burden of you doing this in your own code.

Note that there may be constraints that you would like to impose on
your XML instances that XSD can not represent.  You could document
these in the schema in narrative form (i.e. non-machine interpretable)
and implement them in your application code.

Schemas also allow for databinding tools that can create a set of
program language specific (e.g. Java, C, C++ etc.) data structures
(e.g. classes) and suitable code to convert XML instances into
corresponding program objects and vice versa.

HTH,

Pete Cordell
Codalogic
Visit http://www.codalogic.com/lmx/ for XML C++ data binding