[tdwg-tapir] xsd:any element processing

[Dave Vieglais]

Hi,
In http://rs.tdwg.org/tapir/1.0/schema/tapir.xsd, the definition of the
<custom> element is such that any elements may be included, however the
<xsd:any> element definition does not include a "processContents" attribute,
in which case a validator will use the default of "strict" which requires
that a definition of the contents are available and valid (i.e. an
appropriate schema is available to validate the element content).  The
relevant XML schema reference is:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xmlschema-1-20041028/structures.html#element-any

I'm curious if that was the intent of the TAPIR design?  If not, then
including an attribute in <xsd:any> of processContents="lax" (validate if
possible but ignore problems) or processContents="skip" (don't validate)
would enable quick evaluation of TAPIR response documents using xml schema
validation tools without requiring that providers explicitly include a
schema defining the content of the <custom> element (which seems overly
restrictive).  An appropriate change could be:

  <xsd:element name="custom">
    <xsd:annotation>
      <xsd:documentation>Extension slot for additional information not
defined in the schema.</xsd:documentation>
    </xsd:annotation>
    <xsd:complexType>
      <xsd:sequence>
        <xsd:any minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded" processContents="lax" >
          <xsd:annotation>
            <xsd:documentation>For any custom extension. E.g what security
related
            capabilities does the provider have? Encryption, access
restriction,
            etc.</xsd:documentation>
          </xsd:annotation>
        </xsd:any>
      </xsd:sequence>
    </xsd:complexType>
  </xsd:element>

I do not believe this will change any functionality of TAPIR providers, but
it will enable validation of responses such as:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<response xmlns="http://rs.tdwg.org/tapir/1.0"
                  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
                  xsi:schemaLocation="
http://rs.tdwg.org/tapir/1.0/schema/tapir.xsd">
  <header>
    <source accesspoint="
http://lsid.herbimi.info/TapirDotNET/tapir.aspx/herbIMI"
                   sendtime="2007-11-09T05:15:05">
      <software name="TapirDotNET" version="0.1 (revision )"/>
    </source>
    <destination>128.111.242.127</destination>
    <custom><skin>default</skin></custom>
  </header>
  <pong/>
</response>

which does not validate according to the current TAPIR schema.

Other places in the schema that may be a problem (because processContents is
not explicitly stated) are:

/xsd:schema/xsd:group[1]/xsd:sequence[1]/xsd:element[1]/xsd:complexType[1]/xsd:choice[1]/xsd:any[1]
/xsd:schema/xsd:complexType[34]/xsd:sequence[1]


regards,
  Dave V.
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