Using XML with Legacy Business Applications

Creating New Complex Types by Extension

One of the nicer features of schema language is the ability to create a new complex type by extending an existing one. The most frequent usage involves taking an existing sequence of Elements and adding a new one at the end. The example below defines RowType, followed by an extension where we add a new column for birth date. You can find the complete schema in SimpleCSV5.xsd.

Extending a Complex Type by Adding an Element in SimpleCSV5.xsd

<xs:complexType name="RowType"> <xs:annotation> <xs:documentation>Here we give a named type to our Row Element, instead of defining it anonymously in-line. </xs:documentation> </xs:annotation> <xs:sequence> <xs:element name="Column01" type="ColumnType" minOccurs="0"/> ...