The W3C's XML Schema Recommendation offers a powerful set of tools for defining XML document structures and content. XML Schema explains this toolkit of strongly typed approaches with an object-oriented heritage. Building from that foundation, developers can create precise descriptions that both define acceptable content models and provide additional type information, making them more readily bound to programs and objects. You'll learn how XML Schema combines the easy interchange of text-based XML with the more stringent requirements of data exchange. While schemas are powerful, that power comes with substantial complexity. XML Schema explains the ins and outs of XML Schema, including design choices, best practices, and limitations. Discussions of the type structures explore how these types fit with existing database and programming contexts. Consistent examples provide a firm underpinning for the explanations, demonstrating all the details necessary for precise vocabulary definitions.

XML Schema also provides a complete reference to all parts of both the XML Schema Structures and XML Schema Datatypes specifications as well as a glossary. Appendixes explore the relationships between XML Schema and other tools for describing document structures, including DTDs, RELAX NG, and Schematron, as well as work in progress at the W3C to more tightly integrate XML Schema with existing specifications. Whether you're building your own schemas, interpreting, revising, or integrating schemas created by others, or creating applications that can process schemas, you'll find that XML Schema reaches all the way to the core.