RE: building an object model of a XML schema

[Jeff Lowery <jlowery@scenicsoft.com>]

> However, I think this requires a big caveat -- that the generated
> objects are probably only a starting place for the real 
> objects. 

Yes, I think the generated objects represent the finest-grained level of
data access, on top of which layers of classes with higher-level
abstractions are built; efficiency could be concern, however. Now, it may be
possible to add information to a complex type that says 'treat this
atomically', so the generator knows that 

<element name="point">
	<complexType>
		<sequence>
			<element name="x" type="decimal"/> <!-- ne number,
ne decimal -->
			<element name="y" type="decimal"/>
			<element name="unit">
				<simpleType>
					<restriction base="string">
						<enumeration value="mm"/>
						<enumeration value="in"/>
						<enumeration value="pica"/>
						<enumeration value="pt"/>
					</restriction>
				<simpleType>
			</element>
		</sequence>
	</complexType>
</element>
<!-- pause while fingers uncramp -->

needs to have some interface implemented that allows the data content of all
three children to be set at once. I could see that being useful. Yes, it
does require the schema author to have knowledge of the application, but
some applications developers do talk to data modelers, so it's not
inconceivable.






> 
> Note that I'm not sure if the various data binding products 
> (e.g. JAXB,
> Castor) give you enough control to use objects that are substantially
> different from the XML. That is, they might rely on a strict mapping
> with few choices. In such a case, it might be necessary to 
> transform the
> XML document before creating objects and after serializing them. A lot
> of people who use my software to transfer data between XML 
> and databases
> do this.
> 
> By the way, I've added a reference to this discussion to the paper.
> 
> -- Ron
> 
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