Question

Schemavalidate ignoring IDREF

Asked by: ffwd09

It seems like DOMDocument's schemaValidate() method does ignores the ID and IDREFS, while XMLSpy doesn't.

Example invalid:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root>
  <author id="ref1">
    <name>Mister author</name>
  </author>
  <book>
    <name>Grace</name>
    <author idref="ref2" />
  </book>
</root>

Example valid:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root>
  <author id="ref1">
    <name>Mister author</name>
  </author>
  <book>
    <name>Grace</name>
    <author idref="ref1" />
  </book>
</root>

Schemavalidate returns true in both cases. Does anyone has experience with this problem? I can't figure it out.

Thanks in advance

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2009-10-26 at 06:04:29ID24843377
Tags

schemavalidate

,

xml

,

xsd

,

idref

Topics

Extensible Markup Language (XML)

,

PHP Scripting Language

Participating Experts
1
Points
125
Comments
7

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. getting XML-String out of a domDocument
    How can I get the content of a DOMDocument (or a subsequent DOMNode) as a Sting In VBXML there is an Attribute DomDocument.XML which is exactly the content as string. What is the equivalent option in Xerces? Thanx Choli
  2. How to validate SPML schema (probably using XMLSpy 2…
    Last desperate hope for appeal, as I'm running out of ideas - hoping there are some XMLSpy gurus hiding out there. I'm trying to validate the output messages from the openspml.org free java toolkit against the SPML XML Schema definition document: http://www.oasis-open.org/c...
  3. PHP XML DomDocument and pound symbol problem
    Hi, I am using the PHP DomDocument class to create an XML file from data from a database. Unfortunately, if the data in the dataabse contains a pound symbol (£), the whole field is ignored and not added to the XML. Do you know what may be causing this? My code to create th...
  4. Problem with reading XML with DOMDocument
    Hi Experts, I am having a problem getting XML data with DOMDocument. When i view the log files i see that the error message is: "URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration" . I had contact with the hosting party and the enabled the URL i want to access...
  5. PHP issue with XML/DOMDocument
    The following code is having issues, will paste error below: <?php $xmlwithdtd = " <?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><!DOCTYPE REQUEST [ <!ELEMENT REQUEST (COMMUNICATION_CODE,PARTNER_ID,SID)> <!ELEMENT COMMU...

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: GertonePosted on 2009-10-26 at 06:26:25ID: 25661981

That largely depends on the schema or DTD that you use to validate this
and that you don't show

Usually if I see different behaviour between XML Spy and any other application, I know that XML Spy is wrong.
But you might have even hit a worse parser.

If the type of the "id" attribute is xs:ID (or xs:key)
and the type of the idref attribute is xs:IDREF, xs:IDREFS, or xs:keyref
and the reference to the schema is right, than XML Spy is right.
But I am afraid that the likely cause of confusion is then in you not referencing the schema right

Would it give you an error if you made a more obvious error eg. <rot> instead of <root>. CAn you check that?

Also note that some XML parsers allow you to switch off id/idref checking. Make sure that your parser does not have such a switch, turned off by default

 

by: ffwd09Posted on 2009-10-26 at 06:52:33ID: 25662209

The types I'm using id xs:ID and xs:IDREF. And yes, I'm getting the error if I change the root element. I'm absolutely sure that the validation of XMLSpy is right and validateSchema is wrong. I can't find any option for enable/disable id/idref checking for Domdocument's validateSchema().

 

by: GertonePosted on 2009-10-26 at 06:54:46ID: 25662222

Can you post the schema?,
maybe there is a trigger in there.

What is the DOM implementation you are using?

 

by: ffwd09Posted on 2009-10-26 at 07:02:41ID: 25662288

See code snippet for the schema

Below a imple validate snippet (php)

$oDom = new DOMDocument();
$oDom->load('books.xml');
var_dump($oDom->schemaValidate('books.xsd'));

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" attributeFormDefault="unqualified" elementFormDefault="qualified">
	<xs:element name="root">
		<xs:complexType>
			<xs:sequence>
				<xs:element name="author">
					<xs:complexType>
						<xs:sequence>
							<xs:element name="name">
								<xs:simpleType>
									<xs:restriction base="xs:string">
										<xs:maxLength value="255"/>
										<xs:minLength value="1"/>
									</xs:restriction>
								</xs:simpleType>
							</xs:element>
						</xs:sequence>
						<xs:attribute name="id" type="xs:ID" use="required"/>
					</xs:complexType>
				</xs:element>
				<xs:element name="book">
					<xs:complexType>
						<xs:sequence>
							<xs:element name="name">
								<xs:simpleType>
									<xs:restriction base="xs:string">
										<xs:maxLength value="255"/>
										<xs:minLength value="1"/>
									</xs:restriction>
								</xs:simpleType>
							</xs:element>
							<xs:element name="author">
								<xs:complexType>
									<xs:attribute name="idref" type="xs:IDREF" use="required"/>
								</xs:complexType>
							</xs:element>							
						</xs:sequence>
					</xs:complexType>
				</xs:element>				
			</xs:sequence>
		</xs:complexType>
	</xs:element>
</xs:schema>
                                              
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:
8:
9:
10:
11:
12:
13:
14:
15:
16:
17:
18:
19:
20:
21:
22:
23:
24:
25:
26:
27:
28:
29:
30:
31:
32:
33:
34:
35:
36:
37:
38:
39:
40:
41:
42:
43:

Select allOpen in new window

 

by: GertonePosted on 2009-10-26 at 07:55:01ID: 25662827

That is obviously a bug in the validating parser of php.
I am not a php programmer at all.
What is the underlying parser?
ID/IDREF is a DTD construct.
There is very little use for it in XML schema, unless you want to schema validate documents that also have DTD validation.
If your data does not come close to a DTD at all, you should use xs:key/xs:keyref, which is more elegant and powerfull
It could be that your parser implementation is poor on the support for ID/IDREF, but you might possibly get what you need using key/keyref
Try the following schema, since I set the type of id and idref to xs:NMTOKEN, there is hardly a difference to using id and idref
maybe the parser is more succesfull on this schema, fingers crossed

<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" attributeFormDefault="unqualified" elementFormDefault="qualified">
    <xs:element name="root">
        <xs:complexType>
            <xs:sequence>
                <xs:element name="author" maxOccurs="unbounded">
                    <xs:complexType>
                        <xs:sequence>
                            <xs:element name="name">
                                <xs:simpleType>
                                    <xs:restriction base="xs:string">
                                        <xs:maxLength value="255"/>
                                        <xs:minLength value="1"/>
                                    </xs:restriction>
                                </xs:simpleType>
                            </xs:element>
                        </xs:sequence>
                        <xs:attribute name="id" type="xs:NMTOKEN" use="required"/>
                    </xs:complexType>
                </xs:element>
                <xs:element name="book" maxOccurs="unbounded">
                    <xs:complexType>
                        <xs:sequence>
                            <xs:element name="name">
                                <xs:simpleType>
                                    <xs:restriction base="xs:string">
                                        <xs:maxLength value="255"/>
                                        <xs:minLength value="1"/>
                                    </xs:restriction>
                                </xs:simpleType>
                            </xs:element>
                            <xs:element name="author">
                                <xs:complexType>
                                    <xs:attribute name="idref" type="xs:NMTOKEN" use="required"/>
                                </xs:complexType>
                            </xs:element>							
                        </xs:sequence>
                    </xs:complexType>
                </xs:element>				
            </xs:sequence>
        </xs:complexType>
        <xs:key name="author-id">
            <xs:selector xpath="author"></xs:selector>
            <xs:field xpath="@id"></xs:field>
        </xs:key>
        <xs:keyref refer="author-id" name="author-ref">
            <xs:selector xpath="book/author"></xs:selector>
            <xs:field xpath="@idref"></xs:field>
        </xs:keyref>
    </xs:element>
</xs:schema>

                                              
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:
8:
9:
10:
11:
12:
13:
14:
15:
16:
17:
18:
19:
20:
21:
22:
23:
24:
25:
26:
27:
28:
29:
30:
31:
32:
33:
34:
35:
36:
37:
38:
39:
40:
41:
42:
43:
44:
45:
46:
47:
48:
49:
50:

Select allOpen in new window

 

by: ffwd09Posted on 2009-10-26 at 08:03:45ID: 31645861

You're my hero, it works!

 

by: GertonePosted on 2009-10-26 at 08:35:56ID: 25663324

welcome, so I learned today that the validating schema parser in PHP has issues with ID/IDREF... interesting

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...