attributeGroup needs to appear after an enumeration in XSD - xsd

XML standards say that an attributeGroup needs to appear after an enumeration in a restriction. Is this true ?

Yes and no, depends on what you are after.
If you have an restriction with <enumeration> and <attributeGroup> elements, then out of these two <enumeration> needs to appear first. But besides <restriction> <attributeGroup> elements can appear also as child of <attributeGroup> (nested groups), <complexType>, <extension>, <redefine> or <schema> (global groups).

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Drop down menu for String values in Hybris Management Console

I have a requirement to display a drop down menu for a String type in Hybris Management Console, restricting the value to some specific values.
As suggested in several forums, I tried to create this entry as an enumeration type but characters like '-' are to be allowed in the enumeration values, as this column receives some specific values which comprise of '-'.
How do I solve this issue?
The people advising you probably didn't understand your requirements. As such, an enumeration type is clearly not appropriate in this case. Consider the alternatives. Is there a Map Type available? What other type might allow you to achieve your goal?
Actually, you could use the hybris Enumeration. In hybris Enum Types have a code and a name. The code is the unique representation for this enum and cannot contain a "-". The name however is a localized representation of that value and can include every character your database is able to store. Have a look here:
https://help.hybris.com/6.5.0/hcd/8c895989866910148d6a802f06651702.html
Additionally, hybris enables you to dynamically create new enumeration values, which is kind of nice.

Making subtags dependent on an attribute of a parent in XML Schema

I have created an XML file like the following
<monitor>
<widget name="Widgets/TestWidget1">
<state code="VIC" />
<state code="TAS" />
</widget>
<widget name="Widgets/TestWidget2">
<client code="someclient" />
</widget>
</monitor>
The name attribute of the <widget> tag tells the parser what widget to load (they are asp.net user controls).
I am trying to create a schema file for the above, the problem is that inside the <widget> the supported subtags are dependent on the name attribute. So TestWidget1 supports the <state> tag and TestWidget2 supports the <client tag.
Currently my XML Schema file just displays all possible <widget> subtags regardless of whether they are supported or not.
How can I write an XML schema file that will only allow specific subtags based on the name attribute? If this is not possible, what options do I have?
You have several options. The simplest and most direct is to re-think your problem a bit. If the legal content of element E1 and the legal content of element E2 are different, then the simplest design is to call them different things, because in XSD as in DTDs the legal content of an element depends on the element type name. A devil's advocate would ask you "if you want different kinds of widget to obey different rules, why are you telling the validator that they are the same kind of widget? Tell the validator the truth, by giving them different names. So don't call them and so on, call them and ."
In XSD 1.1 you can also use conditional type assignment or assertions to define constraints on the legal combinations of attributes and children, but not every schema-aware editor is going to have the chops necessary to analyse the conditional type assignment rules and attributes and understand what to prompt you with.

Require that an element has another element as a descendant

Is there a way in an xsd schema to require that an element have another element somewhere as a descendant?
For example, element parent requires a descendant desc. This is valid:
<parent>
<a>
<b>
<desc></desc>
</b>
</a>
</parent>
As is this:
<parent>
<c>
<desc></desc>
</c>
</parent>
but this isn't:
<a>
<parent>
<b/>
</parent>
</a>
The potential child elements for parent are many and complicates, so it would be difficult to enumerate every possible valid configuration.
Something like the key/selector schema elements seems like it would work, where I could provide an xpath expression defining the valid locations for desc element, but all of the examples I've found are aimed at matching up the value of attributes.
No, (almost) all XML Schema validation is shallow, called "local" in the spec. Here's one excerpt that emphasizes type validation as "local" validation.
Element Validated by Type If an
element information item is ·valid·
with respect to a ·type definition· as
per Element Locally Valid (Type)
(§3.3.4), [it is marked as] ·validated·.
The only exception is for the identity constraints like uniqueness and key-references which have a broad scope in an XML document but narrow uses.
I don't know if XSD supports what you are trying to do, but there is a work-around.
You could do complex validations with a two-step process:
First simply use your XSD schema for basic validation
Next use an XSLT which does more complex validations, and outputs the result of that validation
This may not plug in well to whatever framework you are working with, but might work well for (partially) custom code. It also has the advantage (over doing the extra validations in code) that you can publish both documents.
From a quick google search, one effort towards this end is Schematron. It actually foregos XSD entirely, and just uses XSLT. It appears to be a published standard:
http://www.schematron.com/

An XSD attribute to capture "source data field"

I have a domain model which is intended to generalise several source systems. As such, in certain cases the decision was made to overload data into new a generic field rather than to create several specific fields.
To account for this, when the source systems data is mapped onto the new domain model, I was hoping to record the source fieldname as an attribute, e.g.:
<Event>
<Description sourceField="subject">...</Description>
<Description sourceField="description">...</Description>
<Description sourceField="issue">...</Description>
<...>
</Event>
What would be the appropriate way to add such an attribute into the XSD? Would I need to specifically attach it to every such overloaded field, or is there a general way to allow an attribute across all elements?
Please don't point out that I should just add the extra fields into the domain model if I need to distinguish between the different data - the decision has been made, I just need to work around it!
Thanks in advance.
Not really.
If all your element declarations extend from a common base type definition, then you can add the attribute to the base.
If all your element declarations include an anyAttribute, you can make a global attribute definition for sourceField. Then the validator would at least allow your attribute but not require it. And if the anyAttribute is strict or lax the validator will make sure the attribute's content is valid.

How to tell if XML element is marked as required in the XSD file

I need to mark some elements as non required in the XSD schema. How do I go about figuring out which elements are marked as required, is there any particular flag I should be searching for. Currently all of my elements are marked with minOccurs="0", is this what needs to be changed?
Yes.
minOccurs="0" is what you need to add to an element as optional.
Having no minOccurs attribute implies mandatory (since by default minOccurs="1")

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