Use of a SchemaLanguage help to communicate the structure and meaning of the content of ExtensibleMarkupLanguage (XML) documents.

Initially, only DocumentTypeDefinition was available. And then WXS (W3C XML Schema) was accepted as an international standard specially designed for XML (see XmlSchema).

Unfortunately, WXS was perceived to be too complicated. A competing XML-based RelaxNg was considered and accepted first by OasisOrganization and later IsoOrganization.

The latest IsoOrganization DocumentSchemaDefinitionLanguages addition is SchematronLanguage, which is said to be a rule based validation mechanism, and has "traction of its own" (XML growing pains article at http://www.adtmag.com/article.asp?id=10196)

----
'''Beginners' Corner'''

''A tutorial with examples: '' http://www.xfront.com/xml-schema.html

----
'''Trade-offs in adopting the various SchemaLanguagesForXml'''

(To be continued...)

----
'''References'''

''Newsgroup discussion on which schema to use: '' http://groups.google.com/groups?th=ef20426be5681fa

''WikiPedia XML schema description'' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_schema

----
See also XmlForSelfSchematizingData, XmlSchemaPatterns

CategoryXml