RELAX NG

Table of Contents

Foreword by James Clark

Foreword by Murata Makoto

Preface

Who Should Read This Book?

Who Shouldn't Read This Book?

Organization of This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

Comments and Questions

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Acknowledgments

I. Tutorial

1. What RELAX NG Offers

1.1. Diversity

1.2. Keeping Documents Independent of Applications

1.3. Validation Has Many Aspects

1.4. The Best Way to Validate XML Document Structures

1.5. RELAX NG's Diverse Applications

1.6. RELAX NG as a Pivot Format

1.7. Why Use Other Schema Languages?

2. Simple Foundations Are Beautiful

2.1. Documents and Infosets

2.2. Different Types of Schema Languages

2.3. A Simple Example

2.4. A Strong Mathematical Background

2.5. Patterns, and Only Patterns

3. First Schema

3.1. Getting Started

3.2. First Patterns

3.2.1. The text Pattern

3.2.2. The attribute Pattern

3.2.3. The element Pattern

3.2.4. The optional Pattern

3.2.5. The oneOrMore Pattern

3.2.6. The zeroOrMore Pattern

3.3. Complete Schema

3.3.1. Constraining Number of Occurrences

3.3.2. Creating "Russian Doll" Schemas

4. Introducing the Compact Syntax

4.1. First Compact Patterns

4.1.1. The text Pattern

4.1.2. The attribute Pattern

4.1.3. Element

4.1.4. The optional Pattern

4.1.5. The oneOrMore Pattern

4.1.6. The zeroOrMore Pattern

4.2. Full Schema

4.3. XML or Compact?

5. Flattening the First Schema

5.1. Defining Named Patterns

5.2. Referencing Named Patterns

5.3. The grammar and start Elements

5.4. Assembling the Parts

5.5. Problems That Never Arise

5.6. Recursive Models

5.7. Escaping Named Pattern Identifiers in the Compact Syntax

6. More Complex Patterns

6.1. The group Pattern

6.2. The interleave Pattern

6.3. The choice Pattern

6.4. Pattern Compositions

6.5. Order Variation as a Source of Information

6.6. Text and Empty Patterns, Whitespace, and Mixed Content

6.7. Why Is It Called interleave?

6.8. Mixed Content Models with Order

6.9. A Restriction Related to interleave

6.10. A Missing Pattern: Unordered Group

7. Constraining Text Values

7.1. Fixed Values

7.2. Co-Occurrence Constraints

7.3. Enumerations

7.4. Whitespace and RELAX NG Native Datatypes

7.5. Using String Datatypes in Attribute Values

7.6. When to Use String Datatypes

7.7. Using Different Types in Each Value

7.8. Exclusions

7.9. Lists

7.10. Data Versus Text

8. Datatype Libraries

8.1. W3C XML Schema Type Library

8.1.1. The Datatypes

8.1.2. Facets

8.2. DTD Compatibility Datatypes

8.3. Which Library Should Be Used?

8.3.1. Native Types Versus W3C XML Schema Datatypes

8.3.2. DTD Versus W3C XML Schema Datatypes

9. Using Regular Expressions to Specify Simple Datatypes

9.1. A Swiss Army Knife

9.2. The Simplest Possible Pattern Facets

9.3. Quantifying

9.4. More Atoms

9.4.1. Special Characters

9.4.2. Wildcard

9.4.3. Character Classes

9.4.4. Or-ing and Grouping

9.5. Common Patterns

9.5.1. String Datatypes

9.5.2. Numeric and Float Types

9.5.3. Datetimes

10. Creating Building Blocks

10.1. Using External References

10.1.1. With Russian Doll Schemas

10.1.2. With Flat Schemas

10.1.3. Embedding Grammars

10.1.4. Referencing Patterns in Parent Grammars

10.2. Merging Grammars

10.2.1. Merging Without Redefinition

10.2.2. Merging and Replacing Definitions

10.2.3. Combining Definitions

10.2.4. Why Can't Definitions Be Defined by Group?

10.3. A Real-World Example: XHTML 2.0

10.4. Other Options

10.4.1. A Possible Use Case

10.4.2. XML Tools

10.4.3. Text Tools

11. Namespaces

11.1. A Ten-Minute Guide to XML Namespaces

11.2. The Two Challenges of Namespaces

11.3. Declaring Namespaces in Schemas

11.3.1. Using the Default Namespace

11.3.2. Using Prefixes

11.4. Accepting Foreign Namespaces

11.4.1. Constructing a Wildcard

11.4.2. Using Wildcards

11.4.3. Where Should Foreign Nodes Be Allowed?

11.4.4. Traps to Avoid

11.4.5. Adding Foreign Nodes Through Combination

11.5. Namespaces, Building Blocks, and Chameleon Design

11.5.1. Reexamining XHTML 2.0

11.5.2. Putting a Chameleon in the Library

11.5.3. Good Chameleon or Evil Chameleon?

12. Writing Extensible Schemas

12.1. Extensible Schemas

12.1.1. Working from a Fixed Result

12.1.2. Free Formats

12.1.3. Restricting Existing Schemas

12.2. The Case for Open Schemas

12.2.1. More Name Classes

12.3. Extensible and Open?

13. Annotating Schemas

13.1. Common Principles for Annotating RELAX NG Schemas

13.1.1. Annotation Using the XML Syntax

13.1.2. Annotations Using the Compact Syntax

13.1.3. Annotating Groups of Definitions

13.1.4. Alternatives and Workarounds

13.2. Documentation

13.2.1. Comments

13.2.2. RELAX NG DTD Compatibility Comments

13.2.3. XHTML Annotations

13.2.4. DocBook Annotations

13.2.5. Dublin Core Annotations

13.2.6. SVG Annotations

13.2.7. RDDL Annotations

13.3. Annotation for Applications

13.3.1. Annotations for Preprocessing

13.3.2. Annotations for Conversion

13.3.3. Annotations for Extension

14. Generating RELAX NG Schemas

14.1. Examplotron: Instance Documents as Schemas

14.1.1. Ten-Minute Guide to Examplotron

14.1.2. Use Cases

14.2. Literate Programming

14.2.1. Out of the Box

14.2.2. Adding Bells and Whistles for RDDL

14.3. UML

14.4. Spreadsheets

15. Simplification and Restrictions

15.1. Simplification

15.1.1. Annotation Removal, Whitespace and Attribute Normalization, and Inheritance

15.1.2. Retrieval of External Schemas

15.1.3. Name Class Normalization

15.1.4. Pattern Normalization

15.1.5. First Set of Constraints

15.1.6. Grammar Merge

15.1.7. Schema Flattening

15.1.8. Final Cleanup

15.2. Restrictions

15.2.1. Constraints on Attributes

15.2.2. Constraints on Lists

15.2.3. Constraints on Except Patterns

15.2.4. Constraints on Start Patterns

15.2.5. Constraints on Content Models

15.2.6. Limitations on interleave

16. Determinism and Datatype Assignment

16.1. What Is Ambiguity?

16.1.1. Ambiguity Versus Determinism

16.1.2. Different Kinds of Ambiguity

16.2. The Downsides of Ambiguous and Nondeterministic Content Models

16.2.1. Instance Annotations

16.2.2. Compatibility with W3C XML Schema

16.3. Some Ideas to Make Disambiguation Easier

16.3.1. Generalizing the Except Pattern

16.3.2. Making Disambiguation Rules Explicit

16.3.3. Accepting Ambiguity

II. Reference

17. Element Reference

17.1. Elements

anyName - Name class accepting any name

attribute - Pattern matching an attribute

choice (in the context of a name-class) - Choice between name classes

choice (in the context of a pattern) - choice pattern

data - data pattern

define - Named pattern definition

div (in the context of a grammar-content) - Division (in the context of a grammar)

div (in the context of a include-content) - Division (in the context of an include)

element - Pattern matching an element

empty - Empty content

except (in the context of a except-name-class) - Remove a name class from another

except (in the context of a pattern) - Remove a set of values from a data

externalRef - Reference to an external schema

grammar - Grammar pattern

group - group pattern

include - Grammar merge

interleave - interleave pattern

list - Text node split

mixed - Pattern for mixed content models

name - Name class for a single name

notAllowed - Not allowed

nsName - Name class for any name in a namespace

oneOrMore - oneOrMore pattern

optional - optional pattern

param - Datatype parameter

parentRef - Reference to a named pattern from the parent grammar

ref - Reference to a named pattern

start - Start of a grammar

text - Pattern-matching text nodes

value - Match a text node and a value

zeroOrMore - zeroOrMore pattern

18. Compact Syntax Reference

18.1. EBNF Production Reference

"""...""" - literal segmentenclosed in three double quotesLiteral segment enclosed in three quotesdoubledouble quotes

"..." - literal segmentenclosed in double quotesLiteral segment enclosed in double quotes

'''...''' - literal segmentenclosed in three single quotesLiteral segment enclosed in three single quotessinglequotes

'...' - literal segmentenclosed in single quotesLiteral segment enclosed in single quotes

(nameClass) - Container

(pattern) - Container

*-nameClass - Name class accepting any name

-nameClass - Remove a name class from another

-pattern - Remove a set of values from a data pattern

CName - Colonized names

QuotedIdentifier - Quoted identifier

Top level - Top level

assignMethod - Defines how to assign content to start and named patterns

attribute - Pattern matching an attribute

datatypeName - Datatype name

datatypeName literal - Matches a text node and a value

datatypeName param exceptPattern - data pattern

datatypes - Namespace declaration (to identify datatype libraries)

decl - Declarations

default namespace - Default namespace declaration

div - Division (in the context of a grammar)

element - Pattern matching an element

empty - Empty content

external - Reference to an external schema

grammar - Grammar pattern

grammarContent - Content of a grammar

identifier - Identifier

identifier assignMethod pattern - Named pattern definition

identifierOrKeyword - Identifier or keyword

include - Grammar merge

includeContent - Content of an include pattern

inherit - Namespace inheritance

keyword - Keywords

list - Text node split

literal - Literal

literalSegment - Literal segment

mixed - Pattern for mixed content models

name - Define a set of names that must be matched by an element or attribute

nameClass - Define a set of names that must be matched by an element or attribute

nameClass|nameClass - Choice between name classes

namespace - Namespace declaration

namespaceURILiteral - Namespace URI Literal

notAllowed - Not allowed

nsName exceptNameClass - Name class for any name in a namespace

param - Datatype parameter

parent - Reference to a named pattern from the parent grammar

pattern - Pattern

pattern&pattern - interleave pattern

pattern* - zeroOrMore pattern

pattern+ - oneOrMore pattern

pattern,pattern - pattern,pattern pattern

pattern? - optional pattern

pattern|pattern - choice pattern

start - Start of a grammar

text - Pattern matching text nodes

19. Datatype Reference

xsd:anyURI - URI (Uniform Resource Identifier)

xsd:base64Binary - Binary content coded as "base64"

xsd:boolean - Boolean (true or false)

xsd:byte - Signed value of 8 bits

xsd:date - Gregorian calendar date

xsd:dateTime - Instant of time (Gregorian calendar)

xsd:decimal - Decimal numbers

xsd:double - IEEE 64-bit floating-point

xsd:duration - Time durations

xsd:ENTITIES - Whitespace-separated list of unparsed entity references

xsd:ENTITY - Reference to an unparsed entity

xsd:float - IEEE 32-bit floating-point

xsd:gDay - Recurring period of time: monthly day

xsd:gMonth - Recurring period of time: yearly month

xsd:gMonthDay - Recurring period of time: yearly day

xsd:gYear - Period of one year

xsd:gYearMonth - Period of one month

xsd:hexBinary - Binary contents coded in hexadecimal

xsd:ID - Definition of unique identifiers

xsd:IDREF - Definition of references to unique identifiers

xsd:IDREFS - Definition of lists of references to unique identifiers

xsd:int - 32-bit signed integers

xsd:integer - Signed integers of arbitrary length

xsd:language - RFC 1766 language codes

xsd:long - 64-bit signed integers

xsd:Name - XML 1.O name

xsd:NCName - Unqualified names

xsd:negativeInteger - Strictly negative integers of arbitrary length

xsd:NMTOKEN - XML 1.0 name token (NMTOKEN)

xsd:NMTOKENS - List of XML 1.0 name tokens (NMTOKEN)

xsd:nonNegativeInteger - Integers of arbitrary length positive or equal to zero

xsd:nonPositiveInteger - Integers of arbitrary length negative or equal to zero

xsd:normalizedString - Whitespace-replaced strings

xsd:NOTATION - Emulation of the XML 1.0 feature

xsd:positiveInteger - Strictly positive integers of arbitrary length

xsd:QName - Namespaces in XML-qualified names

xsd:short - 32-bit signed integers

xsd:string - Any string

xsd:time - Point in time recurring each day

xsd:token - Whitespace-replaced and collapsed strings

xsd:unsignedByte - Unsigned value of 8 bits

xsd:unsignedInt - Unsigned integer of 32 bits

xsd:unsignedLong - Unsigned integer of 64 bits

xsd:unsignedShort - Unsigned integer of 16 bits

III. Appendixes

A. DSDL

A.1. A Multipart Standard

A.1.1. Part 1: Overview

A.1.2. Part 2: Regular Grammar-Based Validation

A.1.3. Part 3: Rule-Based Validation

A.1.4. Part 4: Selection of Validation Candidates

A.1.5. Part 5: Datatypes

A.1.6. Part 6: Path-Based Integrity Constraints

A.1.7. Part 7: Character Repertoire Validation

A.1.8. Part 8: Declarative Document Architectures

A.1.9. Part 9: Namespace- and Datatype-Aware DTDs

A.1.10. Part 10: Validation Management

A.2. What DSDL Should Bring You

B. The GNU Free Documentation License

GNU Free Documentation License

0. Preamble

1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS

2. VERBATIM COPYING

3. COPYING IN QUANTITY

4. MODIFICATIONS

5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS

6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS

7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS

8. TRANSLATION

9. TERMINATION

10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE

Addendum: How to use this License for your documents

Glossary