Question

I have an XSD file including some patterns and need to create a bunch of XML documents for testing matching this schema. I know there are some tools and frameworks out there like xsd.exe, JAXB, etc. which create classes out of the XSD.

Basically I need to do the following steps:

• Load XSD
• Parse XSD
• Create matching XML document

Example:

<xs:simpleType name="typeName">
  <xs:restriction base="xs:string">
    <xs:pattern value="[A-ZÄÖÜß][A-ZÄÖÜß'/\-.+ ]*"/>
    <xs:pattern value="+[ ]*"/>
  </xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>

What would be a standard way doing this? The point is that all this shall happen at runtime, i.e. not creating classes via xsd.exe or else. Preferrably in C# or Java but any language is welcome.

Answer 1

Microsoft has something called the XmlSampleGenerator. Check this out:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa302296.aspx

here are it’s limitations:

• The W3C XML Schema Identity Constraints (xs:key, xs:keyref,
  xs:unique) are not supported while generating an instance document.
• If xs:pattern facets exist on simple types, values generated may not
  conform to the pattern.
• Enumerations of the xs:QName type may not
  work as expected since this requires the prefixes in the schema to be
  preserved.
• xs:ENTITY, xs:ENTITIES, and xs:NOTATION types are not
  supported.
• xs:base64Binary content is generated only if enumerations
  exist in the schema for that type.