ANN: a tool that makes it easier to extract information out of XMLSchema

["Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>]

Hi Folks,

I created a tool that makes it easier for you to extract information 
out of XML Schemas.

Here is the tool:

http://www.xfront.com/XML-Schema-Tool-for-Easy-Information-Extraction/index.html  

Motivation for the tool:

Here are a few examples of queries that I've needed to perform
on schemas in the past:

- What are all the elements and attributes that are declared
  to be of type xs:QName (or xs:string, or xs:gYear, etc.)?

- For simpleType A, what are its applicable facets? (Take
  into account the facets in all its ancestor simpleTypes)

- How many element declarations are in the schema? How many
  complexType definitions? simpleTypes? attributes?

- How many lines of schema code are there?

With my tool it is easy to get answers to those questions.

Without this tool, it can be difficult to get the info you desire
from XML Schemas. Here are a few reasons for the difficulty:

1. The schema may be scattered over multiple files. So you have 
   to search through multiple files to find the info you want.

2. A simpleType may be part of a long chain of restrictions. And the
   simpleTypes may be scattered over multiple files. That
   makes it difficult to know exactly what is the net value space 
   for the simpleType.

3. Likewise a complexType may be part of a long chain of derive-by-
   extensions and derive-by-restrictions. And the complexTypes
   may be scattered over multiple files. That makes it difficult
   to know exactly what is the final set of elements and attributes
   in a complexType.

4. An element may be substituted. So, many different elements may
   be possible at a certain point in a schema.

5. Consider an element declaration with a type attribute. The type
   definition could be located in many places: in the document that
   the element declaration is located in, in a document that it
   includes or imports, or one that they include or import. It 
   could be in the document that included the document that
   contains the element declaration. And many more places. Ouch!

6. The elements and attributes in a no-namespace schema are
   part of one namespace when they are included by a schema with
   targetNamespace A and another namespace when they are included 
   by a schema with targetNamespace B.

/Roger