extensibility

Exporting Schemas to Other Formats


XML Authority's default format is the XML 1.0 Document Type Definition format, which works with all validating XML 1.0 parsers. There may be times, however, when you want to export your schema to a different format, or produce a document presenting the structure described by the schema. XML Authority provides support for the four different schema formats that have been submitted to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and provides an option for creating a sample XML 1.0 document.

To export your schema to a particular format, select the format you need from the File Menu's Export submenu, as shown below in Figure A.

Export Options on the File Menu

Figure A - Export Options on the File Menu.

All of the Export options work the same way. You will be presented with a file dialog box like that shown below. Choose where you want to save the exported schema, type in the filename, and click the Save button.

Export Options on the File Menu

Figure B - Saving your exported schema.

More information on each of the schema formats is available at the W3C. The list below includes links to the documentation for the format.

The sample document builder saves an XML document that contains a possible tree structure for documents built with your schema. XML Authority will ask which element type should be used as the root element, as shown below in Figure C.

Export Options on the File Menu

Figure C - Identifying the root element.

While the sample document can't demonstrate every possible combination, it does provide a good roadmap for basic documents that document authors can use as a guide, with information about the type of attribute and element content that may appear. For example, the document below was created by exporting a sample document from the mvpml.dtd schema in the XML Authority samples:

<?xml version ="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE player SYSTEM "D:\Program Files\Extensibility\Samples\Misc\mvpml.dtd">
<!--Generated by XML Authority.-->
<player><!-- (first , last , team , at.bats , rbi , avg )-->
	<first>only text</first>
	<last>only text</last>
	<team>any combination of text and elements</team>
	<at.bats>only text</at.bats>
	<rbi>only text</rbi>
	<avg>only text</avg>
</player>

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