Question

I have an XML schema that includes multiple addresses:

<xs:element name='personal_address' maxOccurs='1'>   <!-- address fields go here --> </xs:element> <xs:element name='business_address' maxOccurs='1'>   <!-- address fields go here --> </xs:element> 

Within each address element, I include a ‘US State’ enumeration:

<xs:simpleType name='state'>     <xs:restriction base='xs:string'>         <xs:enumeration value='AL' />         <xs:enumeration value='AK' />         <xs:enumeration value='AS' />                 ....             <xs:enumeration value='WY' />         </xs:restriction> </xs:simpleType> 

How do I go about writing the ‘US State’ enumeration once and re-using it in each of my address elements? I apologize in advance if this is a n00b question — I’ve never written an XSD before.

My initial stab at it is the following:

<xs:element name='business_address' maxOccurs='1'>   <!-- address fields go here -->   <xs:element name='business_address_state' type='state' maxOccurs='1'></xs:element> </xs:element> 

Answer 1

I think you are on the right tracks. I think its more to do with XML namespaces. Try the following:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?> <xs:schema xmlns:xs='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema'     targetNamespace='http://www.example.org/foo'     xmlns:tns='http://www.example.org/foo'     elementFormDefault='qualified'>     <xs:element name='business_address'>         <xs:complexType>             <xs:sequence>                 <xs:element name='business_address_state'                     type='tns:state' maxOccurs='1' />             </xs:sequence>         </xs:complexType>     </xs:element>     <xs:simpleType name='state'>         <xs:restriction base='xs:string'>             <xs:enumeration value='AL' />             <xs:enumeration value='AK' />             <xs:enumeration value='AS' />             <xs:enumeration value='WY' />         </xs:restriction>     </xs:simpleType> </xs:schema> 

Note that the type is tns:state not just state

And then this is how you would use it:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?> <business_address xmlns='http://www.example.org/foo'     xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance'     xsi:schemaLocation='http://www.example.org/foo foo.xsd '>     <business_address_state>AL</business_address_state> </business_address> 

Notice that this XML uses a default namespace the same as the targetNamespace of the XSD