RE: [xml-dev] What's wrong w/ nested elements?

["Jain, Rajnish" <rjain@xl.com>]

Elliotte,

Thanks for your response. I can understand that this limitation (i.e.
can't nest a complex element under more than one parent) is probably in
the Microsoft tool. My example is right in front of us (thus there is no
broader issue in my application context):

<a>
    <a1>
        <b>
            <c>
            </c>
        </b> 
    </a1>
    <a2>
        <b>
            <c>
            </c>
        </b>
    </a2>
</a>

The tool is okay w/ element (c) being contained under more than one
parent. And even (b) can be present more than once under either (a1) or
(a2) but not under both (a1) and (a2)simultaneously. 

All,

Is their a way I can get the tool to behave correctly (I'm surely
missing something given how basic this is)? Or should I be using some
other editor?

Thanks,
Rajnish


-----Original Message-----
From: Elliotte Rusty Harold [mailto:elharo@metalab.unc.edu] 
Sent: Monday, June 07, 2004 9:44 AM
To: Jain, Rajnish
Cc: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
Subject: Re: [xml-dev] What's wrong w/ nested elements?

At 8:36 AM -0400 6/7/04, Jain, Rajnish wrote:

When I try to create an XSD for this XML using Microsoft Development
Environment 7.1, I get the following error:

Failed to Create a schema for this data file because:
Although this XML document is well formed, it contains structure that
Data View cannot display.
The same table (b) cannot be the child table in two nested relations.

Wondering why the containment relationship shown above is not valid for
an XSD? And what can I do to workaround this problem (I can't afford to
name mangle (b) everywhere it appears).

There's nothing here the W3C XML Schema Language can't handle. The
problem is with the Microsoft tool, not with XML. Try hand authoring a
schema and see if it accepts that, though given the error message I
suspect the problem may not be quite what you think it is. It sounds
like there might be broader issues in your application context that
prohibit this normally allowed structure.

-- 

   Elliotte Rusty Harold
   elharo@metalab.unc.edu
   Effective XML (Addison-Wesley, 2003)
   http://www.cafeconleche.org/books/effectivexml            
 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0321150406/ref%3Dnosim/cafeaula
itA 

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