Question

All my XML attributes are in a different namespace, so my XSD references them from the other XSD. I have two different elements with an attribute with the same name, but different types.

<integer ons:name="10" />
<string ons:name="string"/>

So the integer element has a ons:name attribute that is an integer while the string element has a ons:name attribute that is a string.

How do I define that in the XSD? Currently I have:

<xs:element name="integer">
    <xs:complexType>
        <xs:attribute ref="ons:name" use="required"/>
    </xs:complexType>
</xs:element>

Then in the second XSD for the ons namespace I have the following:

Then the problem is for the second element’s attribute there is no way to specify the type with the ref, and if the ref references a different attribute then it gets a different name.

Answer 1

In the schema document for namespace ons, define two singleton attribute groups:

<xs:attributeGroup name="name-int">
  <xs:attribute name="name" type="xs:integer" use="required" form="qualified"/>
</xs:attribute-group>

<xs:attributeGroup name="name-str">
  <xs:attribute name="name" type="xs:string" form="qualified"/>
</xs:attribute-group>

Then reference the attribute group from the complex type:

<xs:complexType>
    <xs:attributeGroup ref="ons:name-int"/>
</xs:complexType>