“XML Schema 1.1 has gone from strong data typing to positively stalwart—so powerful it can enforce database level constraints and business rules, so your data transfer code won’t have to. This book covers the 1.1 changes—and more—in its 500 revisions to Priscilla Walmsley’s 10-year best-selling classic. It’s the guide you need to navigate XML Schema’s complexity—and master its power!”

—Charles F. Goldfarb

For Ten Years the World’s Favorite Guide to XML Schema—Now Extensively Revised for Version 1.1 and Today’s Best Practices!

To leverage XML’s full power, organizations need shared vocabularies based on XML Schema. For a full decade, Definitive XML Schema has been the most practical, accessible, and usable guide to working with XML Schema. Now, author Priscilla Walmsley has thoroughly updated her classic to fully reflect XML Schema 1.1, and to present new best practices for designing successful schemas.

Priscilla helped create XML Schema as a member of the W3C XML Schema Working Group, so she is well qualified to explain the W3C recommendation with insight and clarity. Her book teaches practical techniques for writing schemas to support any application, including many new use cases. You’ll discover how XML Schema 1.1 provides a rigorous, complete specification for modeling XML document structure, content, and datatypes; and walk through the many aspects of designing and applying schemas, including composition, instance validation, documentation, and namespaces. Then, building on the fundamentals, Priscilla introduces powerful advanced techniques ranging from type derivation to identity constraints. This edition’s extensive new coverage includes

• Many new design hints, tips, and tricks – plus a full chapter on creating an enterprise strategy for schema development and maintenance


• Design considerations in creating schemas for relational and object-oriented models, narrative content, and Web services


• An all-new chapter on assertions


• Coverage of new 1.1 features, including overrides, conditional type assignment, open content and more


• Modernized rules for naming and design


• Substantially updated coverage of extensibility, reuse, and versioning


• And much more

If you’re an XML developer, architect, or content specialist, with this Second Edition you can join the tens of thousands who rely on Definitive XML Schema for practical insights, deeper understanding, and solutions that work.