xml-dev - Re: Namespace for a collection of related schemas?

[ht@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Henry S. Thompson)]

"Roger L. Costello" <costello@mitre.org> writes:

> Question 1.
> 
> Suppose that I have a collection of XML Schemas and the schemas are
> related.
> 
> Example (auto industry).  Suppose that I have an XML Schema for each
> type of auto:
> 
> truck.xsd - schema for trucks
> suv.xsd - schema for sports utility vehicles
> minivan.xsd - schema for minivans
> sedan.xsd - schema for sedans
> coupe.xsd - schema for coupes
> etc.
> 
> What namespace do I use for the schemas:
> 
> (1) A single, umbrella, namespace for the entire collection?  Thus, each
> of the above auto schemas would have the same targetNamespace.
> 
> or,
> 
> (2) A different namespace for each schema?  Thus, each of the above auto
> schemas would have a different targetNamespace.

Insufficient data to enable an obviously correct answer.  Depends on
overlap, both syntactic and semantic, existence of a common core, etc.

> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> Question 2.
> 
> If I were to use the single, umbrella, namespace then when I create,
> say, coupe.xsd would I need to examine all the other schemas to ensure
> that I don't declare an element with the same name?  Stated another way,
> is the scope of an element declaration confined to the schema document,
> or, to the namespace (which in my example spans multiple schema
> documents)?

Your call.  If you don't check, there might be conflicting
declarations in two or more schema documents, but as long as no
processor ever sees more than one of those, you're fine.

ht
-- 
  Henry S. Thompson, HCRC Language Technology Group, University of Edinburgh
          W3C Fellow 1999--2001, part-time member of W3C Team
     2 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LW, SCOTLAND -- (44) 131 650-4440
	    Fax: (44) 131 650-4587, e-mail: ht@cogsci.ed.ac.uk
		     URL: http://www.ltg.ed.ac.uk/~ht/

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