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XMLSpy® 2012 includes a powerful graphical XML Schema editor, with a visual design paradigm and intelligent entry helpers that help you model, edit, and document XML Schemas with ease.

Since the XML Schema editor in XMLSpy allows you to create schemas in a graphical manner, you can focus on the semantics of your schema while leaving the syntactical details of the XML Schema language to XMLSpy.

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XML Schema Editor Design Menu

The Schema Design menu provides numerous choices for working with your schema in the XML Schema editor.

XML Schema Design - Globals

When you open an XML Schema document, the XML Schema editor displays all globally defined components (i.e., elements, complexTypes, attributeGroups, etc.) in the XML Schema as a list in the design view. This graphical view makes it easy to insert, append, or delete global components, as well as modify their properties. You can even sort the components alphabetically by name or by kind, which is especially useful when working with large schemas or for understanding schemas designed by another developer or team.

When an element, complexType, or attributeGroup is selected, the corresponding attributes and identity constraints are automatically available in entry helper windows below the list of global components.

XML Schema Design - Content Model

Clicking the tree icon next to any global component opens the detailed graphical view of its content model in the XML Schema editor.

XML Schema Editor	View Flash demoClick to enlarge

To edit the content model, simply drag-and-drop to rearrange elements or use the right mouse button to select context-sensitive options. You can return to the global view at any time by clicking the Display Globals icon.

With this system, you're able to edit components at a global level and then edit the content model of individual components. When a component is selected, it is highlighted in blue, and its properties are displayed in a series of editable entry helper windows.

Elements can be added to the content model easily by dragging (or copying and pasting) them from the XML Schema Navigator window to the desired position in the content model.

While most parameters of an element node (such as its name, type, and major facets) can be edited directly in the tree view, the full details of the selected node are always visible (and can be edited) in the detail views in separate entry helper windows:

The XML Schema editor provides support for aggregated schemas, allowing you to import schema components from other namespaces, include components from the same namespace, or globally redefine an existing schema component to meet your current needs. You can also connect to the SchemaAgent® 2012 Server and have access to all schemas in the SchemaAgent® 2012 server path as well as their components in the XMLSpy info windows and entry helpers. When you insert one of these components, you can choose which schema includes the definition you require, and SchemaAgent® 2012 will automatically create the required include/import/redefine statements. Learn more about using the XMLSpy XML Schema editor with SchemaAgent.

The XML Schema editor also includes intelligent options for type modification. When changing the type of an existing element or a base type, XMLSpy can optionally preserve any facets and attributes that are compatible with the new type, making updating schemas as they evolve that much easier.

In addition to offering these flexible editing capabilities, the XMLSpy XML Schema editor itself is highly configurable. It lets the user choose which parameters should be displayed and how the display should be formatted:

XML Schema Design - Identity Constraints

Configuring identity constraints (i.e., key/keyref/unique values) is an important aspect of XML Schema development, especially for database users. XMLSpy includes enhanced support for editing identity constraints with helpful visual cues and editing options.

In addition to the Identity Constraints tab in the Schema Overview view, there is a conveniently located Identity Constraints tab in the Components entry helper window of the Content Model View. This tab displays all existing constraints in a tree view and allows you to easily modify or create new relationships.

Furthermore, identity constraints are indicated by green lines, informative icons, and mouse-over messages in the Content Model View. Selecting a node causes its properties to be indicated by a solid green connecting line, while properties of unselected nodes are indicated with a dashed line. A right-click menu allows you to easily add new relationships and specify field and selector values by typing them manually, using drop-down entry helpers, or by simply dragging and dropping the desired nodes.

XML Schema Design - Smart Restrictions

When deriving a complex type by restriction during XML Schema development, parts of the content model of the base type are rewritten in the derived type. This can be confusing if the content model is complex, when it becomes difficult to remember exactly what the content model of the base type looks like as you’re making changes.

The graphical XML Schema editor in XMLSpy includes a way to easily visualize and edit the base type and its restrictions, helping you ensure restrictions are valid as you make changes. All components of the base type, as well as how they compare to the current restricted type, are displayed in the diagram of the content model for the restricted complex type. In addition, the XML Schema editor provides visual hints to show you all possible ways to restrict the base type, making it easy to correctly restrict the derived type.

Icons within the content model display allow you to make changes while preserving a visual record of the original base type. For instance, clicking the “X” icon next to an element in the base type removes it and changes its display. You can add the element back at any time by clicking the “+” icon.

The smart restrictions display supports many advanced features for visualizing restricted types, including a drop down menu that presents you with valid choices for changing compositors, “+” or “-” icons for changing the number of times element groups may occur, and much more.

The complex type restriction visualization and editing is another unique feature you'll find only in XMLSpy, the world’s leading XML and XML Schema editor.

Schema Flattener and Subset Creation

XMLSpy® 2012 supports flattening schemas and creating smaller schemas based on a subset of elements.

The XMLSpy schema flattener allows schema designers to write all the dependent files that are included in a schema into one file. This way, you can use the flattened schema without having to rely on a network connection to access the required files. This could be especially important when shipping a schema within an application.

The schema subset creator lets you create a new schema from a subset, i.e., selecting some global elements or types from a large schema to create a smaller one, using just the elements required for a particular application. This ensures only the required items are included, and using a smaller schema helps reduce loading and validation times. This feature is especially useful for working with NIEM information exchanges, but has also been requested by other users for a variety of applications.

Naming & Coding Conventions

The graphical XML Schema editor in XMLSpy also lets you validate naming and coding conventions outside of the capabilities of the XML Schema standard. This means that you can easily apply rules to control what elements/attributes are called in addition to the naming constraints already provided. For example, you may want to specify that all tags are written using lower case letters. You can also use coding conventions to enforce more complex rules in your schemas, such as disallowing anonymous type definitions, for example.

Find in Schemas

This feature complements the already robust find-in-files capabilities of XMLSpy by adding functionality specialized for schema development. The Find in Schemas window allows you to perform detailed find and replace operations within single schemas and across complex multi-file schemas with ease. Several options for find/replace are available, and multiple tabs allow you to perform multiple searches without losing your previous results.

XML Schema Refactoring

This draws on the power of XMLSpy's Find in Schemas functionality by allowing you to quickly locate all the instances of a global element or type across a schema – and all imported and included schemas – and then rename that component in each place it occurs. This makes schema refactoring easy while ensuring the validity of all impacted schemas. It's especially useful when working with large schemas or when trying to understand and repurpose inherited schemas.

XML Schema and XML Instance Generation

If you want to base your content model on an existing structure, the XML Schema editor in XMLSpy provides utilities to automatically infer XML Schemas from XML instance documents and relational databases, or convert between XML Schema and DTD dialects – with the click of a button.

You can also automatically generate an XML Schema or DTD from use cases, and inversely, you can auto-generate sample XML instance documents from your XML Schema/DTD to test its functionality. The graphical XML Schema editor even allows you to create sample values for XML instance generation so that they will contain arbitrary results, selected from pre-supplied values. You can choose to have this data can populate your sample instance randomly, by cycling through, or by using only the first entry in the list.

XML Schema Documentation

XMLSpy provides two options for generating comprehenive documentation for your XML Schemas. You can select the fixed documentation provided by XMLSpy, or, if you have Altova StyleVision® installed, you can customize a documentation template to suit the needs of the project at hand.

Fixed documentation is available in HTML, Word, and RTF and is still highly configurable via the Schema Documentation dialog.

Your documentation report can include schema diagram snapshots, source fragments, convenient cross-references, and more.

Custom documentation adds unlimited flexibility to your documentation options, from simply adding your company’s logo and branding to the documentation, to presenting it in entirely new ways. New documentation designs are created by modifying XMLSpy's documentation templates in StyleVision, where you have access to a plethora of advanced layout and rendering features. StyleVision integration also means documentation can be generated in PDF in addition to the HTML, RTF, and Word formats offered for the fixed documentation option. A snippet of a customized documentation report is shown below.

XMLSpy includes several ready-made custom documentation templates, which may be used as-is or modified further in StyleVision:

• XML Schema Structure Overview: documents the structure of global elements and complex types to the number of levels you specify
• All XML Schema Type Derivations: displays all simple and complex types and their derived types in a tree format
• XPath List: generates all possible XPath statements that are possible for a schema based on a user-specified number of levels
• Statistics: lists the numbers of elements, types, attributes, groups, etc., for the overall schema, and for each associated schema file

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