xml-dev - Declarative constraints for XML documents

["Arnold, Curt" <Curt.Arnold@hyprotech.com>]

I was wondering if anyone had suggestions on methods of analyzing or
validating internal consistancy of XML documents.  The type of validation
that I'm concerned with goes beyond the types of validation possibly in the
XML Schema drafts, this type of validation would involve comparison of
multiple elements similar to the capabilities of EXPRESS or SQL constraints.
For example, if you had a document like

<Attire>
	<Jacket>
		<Pattern name="pinstripe">
			<Color>Charcoal</Color>
			<Color>White</Color>
		</Pattern>
	</Jacket>
	<Shoes>
		<Color>Brown</Color>
	</Shoes>
</Attire>

A constraint could indicate that you can't wear brown shoes with a Charcoal
suite.  (The schema could indicate that you really should wear a pair of
pants)


A couple of options occured to me:

1) Typical procedural validation in a traditional language like VB or Java
2) XSL that would produce an exception report in XML or HTML
3) A combination of XSL pattern matching and procedural fragments written in
Java, VBScript, or JavaScript.

Any other suggestions? 

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