Question

is it possible to create a schema where the children of an element would be partialy in a sequence and partiali not? something like this:

<xs:element name="rootElement">
 <xs:complexType>
  <xs:all>
   <xs:element name="value1" type="xs:string"/>
   <xs:element name="value2" type="xs:string"/>
  </xs:all>
  <xs:sequence>
   <xs:element name="value3" type="xs:string"/>
   <xs:element name="value4" type="xs:string"/>
  </xs:sequence>
 </xs:complexType>
</xs:element>

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

OK. I think I understand you know. Your XML looks like:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<house> 
    <ownerName>aaa</ownerName>
    <ownerLastName>bbb</ownerLastName>
    <rooms>
        <room1>kitchen</room1>
        <room2>living room</room2>
        <room3></room3>
        <room4></room4> 
        <room5></room5>
    </rooms>
</house>

You want the ownerName and ownerLastName elements to occur in any order although they must both be present. It’s not clear from your description it the position of the rooms element is important. I have assumed it is. It’s import that the child elements of rooms remain in order.

Splitting this up, we can define a complexType for rooms (so the model is complete)

<xs:complexType name="RoomType">
    <xs:simpleContent>
        <xs:extension base="xs:string"/>
    </xs:simpleContent>
</xs:complexType>

<xs:element name="RoomsType">
    <xs:complexType>
        <xs:sequence>
            <xs:element name="room1" type="RoomType"/>
            <xs:element name="room2" type="RoomType"/>
            <xs:element name="room3" type="RoomType"/>
            <xs:element name="room4" type="RoomType"/>
            <xs:element name="room5" type="RoomType"/>
        </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>
</xs:element>

This gives us the sequence of rooms in order.

There are quite a few limitations on the use of xs:all so I’ve avoided it here (you can’t use in a sequence, for example). In order to allow the owner names to occur in any order, I’ve used a choice of two sequences. The choice is embedded in another sequence to ensure that the rooms element comes last.

<xs:complexType name="HouseType">
    <xs:sequence>
        <xs:choice>
            <xs:sequence>
                <xs:element ref="ownerName"/>
                <xs:element ref="ownerLastName"/>
            </xs:sequence>
            <xs:sequence>
                <xs:element ref="ownerLastName"/>
                <xs:element ref="ownerName"/>
            </xs:sequence>
        </xs:choice>
        <xs:element name="rooms" type="HouseType"/>
    </xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>

<xs:element name="house" type="HouseType"/>

Now, if you actually don’t care about the order or ownerLastName, ownerName and house then you can use xs:all without a problem:

<xs:complexType name="HouseType">
    <xs:all>
        <xs:element ref="ownerName"/>
        <xs:element ref="ownerLastName"/>
        <xs:element name="rooms" type="HouseType"/>
    </xs:all>
</xs:complexType>

which requires that you have all three elements present in any order.