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

[Matthew Fuchs <matthew.fuchs@commerceone.com>]

Roger,

This was a very important issue for us at CommerceOne when we created SOX,
as we anticipate many such related schemas.  However, we didn't think it was
one that the schema language itself needed to address directly, yet.  We
recommend a pattern which does allow for later language support, though.
Basically, this is to organize your schemata in a tree, as would be the
preferred structure for any programming language.  In your case, you would
want the following schemas:

http://www.mitre.org/schemas/auto/truck.xsd
http://www.mitre.org/schemas/auto/suv.xsd
http://www.mitre.org/schemas/auto/minivan.xsd
http://www.mitre.org/schemas/auto/sedan.xsd

etc.

If there happened to be some common elements for all autos, you could also
do:

http://www.mitre.org/schemas/auto.xsd

If you further wished to distinguish between cars and trucks, then you could
make the intervening levels.  In SOX, of course, we do this with URNs.

Matthew

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Roger L. Costello [mailto:costello@mitre.org]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2000 8:53 AM
> To: w3c-xml-schema-wg@w3.org; xml-dev@xml.org
> Cc: Cokus,Michael S.; costello@mitre.org
> Subject: Namespace for a collection of related schemas?
> 
> 
> Hi Folks,
> 
> I have three related questions (below).  Any thoughts that you might
> have on any of these questions would be appreciated.  /Roger
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> 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.
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> 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)?
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> Question 3.
> 
> Consider a respository of namespaces (and the elements associated with
> the namespaces).  For managing things it might be easier to have one
> namespace for the collection than separate namespaces.  Any 
> thoughts on
> this?
> 

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