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<decloak>
I'm busily writing about Microsoft Office 2003 and its new XML options.
</decloak>
There's lots of interesting stuff here, though it's a pretty mixed bag.
I'd like to hear what people think of the XML, and I suspect this list
is the best place to expose the angle brackets. I'll start with what's
probably the friendliest of the Office XML, if not the one people are
talking about most: Microsoft Access.
I'm still sorting out its import capabilities, but here's what an export
from a three-table query looks like:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<dataroot xmlns:od="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:officedata"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance";
xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="booksByAuthor.xsd">
<booksByAuthor>
<GivenName>David</GivenName>
<FamilyName>Brownell</FamilyName>
<ISBN>0596002378</ISBN>
<Title>SAX2</Title>
</booksByAuthor>
<booksByAuthor>
<GivenName>Elliotte</GivenName>
<FamilyName>Harold</FamilyName>
<ISBN>0596002920</ISBN>
<Title>XML in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition</Title>
</booksByAuthor>
<booksByAuthor>
<GivenName>Scott</GivenName>
<FamilyName>Means</FamilyName>
<ISBN>0596002920</ISBN>
<Title>XML in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition</Title>
</booksByAuthor>
<booksByAuthor>
<GivenName>Simon</GivenName>
<FamilyName>St.Laurent</FamilyName>
<ISBN>0596005385</ISBN>
<Title>Office 2003 XML Essentials</Title>
</booksByAuthor>
</dataroot>
It's pretty ordinary XML, even friendly. Not that exporting a query is
that difficult, but obfuscation seems pretty ordinary in such things,
and I'm happy not to see it here.
Access also produces a W3C XML Schema, or XSD in MSFT parlance:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema";
xmlns:od="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:officedata">
<xsd:element name="dataroot">
<xsd:complexType>
<xsd:sequence>
<xsd:element ref="booksByAuthor" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
</xsd:sequence>
</xsd:complexType>
</xsd:element>
<xsd:element name="booksByAuthor">
<xsd:annotation>
<xsd:appinfo/>
</xsd:annotation>
<xsd:complexType>
<xsd:sequence>
<xsd:element name="GivenName" minOccurs="0" od:jetType="text"
od:sqlSType="nvarchar">
<xsd:simpleType>
<xsd:restriction base="xsd:string">
<xsd:maxLength value="50"/>
</xsd:restriction>
</xsd:simpleType>
</xsd:element>
<xsd:element name="FamilyName" minOccurs="0" od:jetType="text"
od:sqlSType="nvarchar">
<xsd:simpleType>
<xsd:restriction base="xsd:string">
<xsd:maxLength value="50"/>
</xsd:restriction>
</xsd:simpleType>
</xsd:element>
<xsd:element name="ISBN" minOccurs="0" od:jetType="text"
od:sqlSType="nvarchar">
<xsd:simpleType>
<xsd:restriction base="xsd:string">
<xsd:maxLength value="11"/>
</xsd:restriction>
</xsd:simpleType>
</xsd:element>
<xsd:element name="Title" minOccurs="0" od:jetType="text"
od:sqlSType="nvarchar">
<xsd:simpleType>
<xsd:restriction base="xsd:string">
<xsd:maxLength value="50"/>
</xsd:restriction>
</xsd:simpleType>
</xsd:element>
</xsd:sequence>
</xsd:complexType>
</xsd:element>
</xsd:schema>
A few MS-specific extensions there, but nothing too frightening. (And
yes, Access 2002 could do the export, but I believe 2003 is the first to
come up to speed with W3C XML Schema.)
--
Simon St.Laurent
Ring around the content, a pocket full of brackets
Errors, errors, all fall down!
http://simonstl.com -- http://monasticxml.org
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