XML and SOAP

XML the eXtensible Markup Language has become the lingua franca of the internet.
It is an HTML like language that allows the exchange of arbitrary data in ASCII format
via a media of your choice. SOAP the Simple Object Access protocol is a document
structure defined in XML with the purpose to transport object interfaces between
distributed applications.

Chapter Contents
XML Extended Markup Language
XML Schemas
1.

XML and SOAP

XML Extended Markup Language

10XML

is a plain ASCII document format meant to exchange data between correspondents. In

order to create large distributed projects you should sooner or later become familiar
with XML. Therefore we introduce some tools to facilitate working with XML.

XML is the lingua franca of the internet

XML is known as the lingua franca of the internet. It is a plain text language, like HTML, which
is structured but also human readable at the same time. A structured language is a
precondition for efficient and deterministic automated processing, while the human readability
makes error processing much easier when the automated processing failed for some reason.
XML Farm

This is a simple example of how to define a two dimensional database table in XML.
A table like this
20

Name
Cow
Pig

Weight
420
120

Gender
F
M

could be declared as XML as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Farm xmlns="x-schema:U:\examples\XML\farmschema.xml">
<Animal>
<Name>Cow</Name>
<Weight>420</Weight>
<Gender>F</Gender>
</Animal>
<Animal>
<Name>Pig</Name>
<Weight>120</Weight>
<Gender>M</Gender>
</Animal>
</Farm>

DCD: Document Content Description

A DTD is another XML block that describes the content of the following data.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Schema
xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xml-data"
xmlns:dt="urn:schemas-microsoftcom:datatypes">
<ElementType name="Name" content="textOnly" dt:type="string"/>
<ElementType name="Family" content="textOnly" dt:type="string"/>
<ElementType name="Weight" content="textOnly" dt:type="int"/>
<ElementType name="Gender" content="textOnly" dt:type="string"/>
<ElementType name="Animal" content="mixed">
<element type="Name" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="*"/>
<element type="Family" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="*"/>
<element type="Weight" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="*"/>
<element type="Gender" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="*"/>
</ElementType>
<ElementType name="Farm" content="mixed">
<element type="Animal" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="*"/>
</ElementType>
</Schema>

XML Schema

An XML Schema for the animal farm may look like this:

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XML Schemas
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE xsd:schema PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XMLSCHEMA 19991216//EN" "" [
<!ENTITY % p 'xsd:'>
<!ENTITY % s ':xsd'>
]>
<xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema">
<xsd:complexType name="TyFamily" content="elementOnly">
<xsd:sequence>
<xsd:element name="TyName">
<xsd:simpleType base="xsd:string">
<xsd:enumeration value="Cow"/>
<xsd:enumeration value="Pig"/>
</xsd:simpleType>
</xsd:element>
</xsd:sequence>
</xsd:complexType>
<xsd:complexType name="TyGender" content="elementOnly">
<xsd:sequence>
<xsd:element name="TyGender">
<xsd:simpleType base="xsd:string">
<xsd:enumeration value="F"/>
<xsd:enumeration value="M"/>
</xsd:simpleType>
</xsd:element>
</xsd:sequence>
</xsd:complexType>
<xsd:complexType name="AnimalType" content="elementOnly">
<xsd:sequence>
<xsd:element name="Family" type="TyFamily"/>
<xsd:element name="Weight" type="xsd:short"/>
<xsd:element name="Gender" type="TyGender"/>
</xsd:sequence>
</xsd:complexType>
<xsd:element name="Farm">
<xsd:complexType content="elementOnly">
<xsd:sequence>
<xsd:element name="Animal" type="AnimalType"
minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
</xsd:sequence>
<xsd:attribute name="xmlns:xsi"
type="xsd:uriReference" use="default"
value="http://www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema-instance"/>
<xsd:attribute name="xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation"
type="xsd:string"/>
<xsd:attribute name="xsi:schemaLocation"
type="xsd:string"/>
</xsd:complexType>
</xsd:element>
</xsd:schema>
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You may find it helpful to see, that a schema is more or less analogous to the type declaration
section of any modern programming language, like as in the table below. However, the XML
schemas allow a much more complex attribute setting to any type.
ABAP IV

Visual Basic

Types:
TyFamily
C(12)

Public
Enum
TyFamily
Cow = 1
Pig = 2
End Enum

Types:
TyGender

Type

Type

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XML Schema

Public
Enum
TyGender

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C(1)

male = 1
female = 2
End Enum

Types:
Begin Of Animal
Name(32),
Family
Type
TyFamily,
Weight Type P,
Gender
Type
TyGender,
End Of Animal.

Public
Type
Animal
Name
As
String
Family
As
TyFamily
Weight As
Long
Gender As
TyGender
End Type

<ElementType
content="mixed">
<element type="Name"/>
<element type="Family"/>
<element type="Weight"/>
<element type="Gender"/>
</ElementType>

name="Animal"

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XML Schemas

XML Schemas
XML is a plain ASCII document format meant to exchange data between correspondents. In
order to create large distributed projects you should sooner or later become familiar
50
with XML. Therefore we introduce some tools to facilitate working with XML.

Schema
The next major step is to create a schema which is a formal way of defining and validating the
content of an XML document. (A well-formed XML document that conforms to its schema is
said to be valid.)

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The schema is how we assign the data types to each tag and any attributes that are contained
in the XML document. A schema is a structured document which must obey XML syntax rules.
It is composed of a series of predefined tags and attributes that are part of the XML language
and are used to set the data types for the values associated with our custom tags. Simply put,
not only do we get to create custom XML tags, but we can also denote that an XML data value
is, for example, an integer data type. This ability to assign specfic data types to specific XML
data values is one of the reasons why XML has attracted so much attention.
A schema can be part of the XML document or a separate file. For our examples, we will
create a separate schema file to allow you to view the resultant document.

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Fortunately, if you can write HTML code, you can write a schema document. Here are the XML
tags and attributes that we will use to create a schema:
Schema
The Schema tag serves as a container element that delimits the beginning and end of the
schema. This tag must be closed and please note the exact spelling with regard to case.

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xmlns
The xmlns attribute is used to declare the schema XML namespace. The value is a URL or
URN address that the browser will access to get information on how to parse and validate the
code.
xmlns:dt
The xmlns:dt attribute is used to declare the data types of the schema XML namespace. The
value is a URL or URN address that the browser will access to get information on the data
types to allow code validation.
If you are using IE 5 to view your XML document, then you must include the xmlns and the
xmlns:dt attributes exactly as displayed below:

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<Schema xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xml-data" xmlns:dt="urn:schemas-microsoftcom:datatypes">

...
</Schema>
AttributeType
The AttributeType tag is used to declare the data type for an attribute of an XML tag. This tag
must be closed and please note the exact spelling with regard to case.
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name
The name attribute provides the name of the attribute.

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dt:type
The dt:type attribute dictates the data type of the attribute. The twenty three permitted values
are:
binary

non-positiveinteger

Boolean

positiveinteger

byte

recurringInst
ant

date

short

decimal

string

double

time

float

timeDuration

int

timeInstant

integer

unsignedbyte

long

unsigned-int

negativeinteger

unsignedlong

non-negativeinteger

attribute
The attribute tag is used to associate a previously data typed attribute to a tag. This tag must
be closed and please note the exact spelling with regard to case.

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type
The type attribute provides the data type of the custom attribute.
ElementType
The ElementType tag is used to declare the data type for a custom XML tag. This tag must be
closed and please note the exact spelling with regard to case.

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content
The content attribute describes the intended content of the XML tag. There are four permitted
values:
T
y
p
e
e
lt
O

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Description

Contains only elements

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XML Schemas

n
l
y
e
m
p
t
y

Contains no content

m
i
x
e
d

Contains both elements

and text

t
e
x
t
O
n
l
y

Contains only text

name
The name attribute provides the name of the tag (element).

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dt:type
The dt:type attribute dictates the data type of the tag (element). The twenty three permitted
values are:
binary

non-positiveinteger

Boolean

positiveinteger

byte

recurringInst
ant

date

short

decimal

string

double

time

float

timeDuration

int

timeInstant

integer

unsignedbyte

long

unsigned-int

negativeinteger

unsignedlong

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XML and SOAP

non-negativeinteger

element
The element tag is used to associate a previously data typed tag to an element. This tag must
be closed and please note the exact spelling with regard to case.
type
The type attribute provides the type of the custom XML element.
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