Question

I have an xsd to validate an xml file, but I’m getting the error Invalid content was found starting with element 'user'. One of '{user}' is expected.

If I change the namespace declaration to xmlns:synchronisation="synchronisation" and put synchronisation:syncQueryMapping as the root tag, but keep the rest the same, it is validated, but I do not understand why this works, why it is necessary and why the rest of the tags don’t require it.

I can’t seem to understand & fix the issue, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

The xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<syncQueryMapping xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="synchronisation"
    xsi:schemaLocation="synchronisation syncQueryMappingSchema.xsd">

    <user>
        <tableName></tableName>
        <nameColumn></nameColumn>
        <passwordColumn></passwordColumn>
    </user>
    <group>
        <tableName></tableName>
        <nameColumn></nameColumn>
    </group>
    <userGroupMapping>
        <tableName></tableName>
        <userNameColumn></userNameColumn>
        <groupNameColumn></groupNameColumn>
    </userGroupMapping>

</syncQueryMapping>

The xsd:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:jaxb="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/jaxb"
    jaxb:version="1.0" targetNamespace="synchronisation" xmlns="synchronisation">

    <!-- JAXB Configuration -->
    <xs:annotation>
        <xs:appinfo>
            <jaxb:schemaBindings>
                <jaxb:package name="synchronisation.implementation" />
            </jaxb:schemaBindings>
        </xs:appinfo>
    </xs:annotation>

    <xs:complexType name="dbSyncUserType" >
        <xs:sequence>
            <xs:element type="xs:string" name="tableName" />
            <xs:element type="xs:string" name="nameColumn" />
            <xs:element type="xs:string" name="passwordColumn" />
            <xs:element type="xs:string" name="suspendStartDateColumn" minOccurs="0" />
            <xs:element type="xs:string" name="suspendEndDateColumn" minOccurs="0" />
        </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>

    <xs:complexType name="dbSyncGroupType">
        <xs:sequence>
            <xs:element type="xs:string" name="tableName" />
            <xs:element type="xs:string" name="nameColumn" />
            <xs:element type="xs:string" name="typeColumn" minOccurs="0" />
            <xs:element type="typeColumnDataTypeType" name="typeColumnDataType" minOccurs="0" />
            <xs:element type="xs:string" name="typeValue" minOccurs="0" />
        </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>

    <xs:simpleType name="typeColumnDataTypeType">
        <xs:restriction base="xs:string">
            <xs:enumeration value="INTEGER" />
            <xs:enumeration value="VARCHAR" />
        </xs:restriction>
    </xs:simpleType>

    <xs:complexType name="dbSyncUserTableJoinType">
        <xs:sequence>
            <xs:element type="xs:string" name="userKeyColumn" />
            <xs:element type="xs:string" name="mappingsForeignKeyColumn" />
        </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>

    <xs:complexType name="dbSyncGroupTableJoinType">
        <xs:sequence>
            <xs:element type="xs:string" name="groupKeyColumn" />
            <xs:element type="xs:string" name="mappingsForeignKeyColumn" />
        </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>

    <xs:complexType name="dbSyncUserGroupMappingJoinType">
        <xs:sequence>
            <xs:element type="dbSyncUserTableJoinType" name="userTable" />
            <xs:element type="dbSyncGroupTableJoinType" name="groupTable" />
        </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>

    <xs:complexType name="dbSyncUserGroupMappingType">
        <xs:sequence>
            <xs:element type="xs:string" name="tableName" />
            <xs:element type="xs:string" name="userNameColumn" />
            <xs:element type="xs:string" name="groupNameColumn" />
            <xs:element type="dbSyncUserGroupMappingJoinType" name="join" minOccurs="0" />
        </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>

    <!-- Root element -->
    <xs:element name="syncQueryMapping">
        <xs:complexType>
            <xs:sequence>
                <xs:element type="dbSyncUserType" name="user" />
                <xs:element type="dbSyncGroupType" name="group" />
                <xs:element type="dbSyncUserGroupMappingType" name="userGroupMapping" />
            </xs:sequence>
        </xs:complexType>
    </xs:element>
</xs:schema>

Answer 1

When you added xmlns="synchronisation" to your XML document you are specifying that all nested elements without a prefix belong to that namespace (syncQueryMapping and user).

<syncQueryMapping 
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
    xmlns="synchronisation"
    xsi:schemaLocation="synchronisation syncQueryMappingSchema.xsd">
    <user>
        ....

You need to add elementFormDefault="qualified" on the root element in your XML schema to indicate that all the elements in a XML document corresponding to this XML schema are namespace qualified.

<xs:schema 
    xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" 
    xmlns:jaxb="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/jaxb"
    jaxb:version="1.0" 
    targetNamespace="synchronisation" 
    xmlns="synchronisation"
    elementFormDefault="qualfied">

Without that specified in order for your XML document to be valid only the global elements should be namespace qualfied. This would mean you could not use a default namespace.