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Sams Teach Yourself XML in 21 Days

Sep 16, 2005

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Declaring Mixed-Content Elements

XML schemas support true mixed-content elements, in which you can mix text and elements. In other words, character data can appear at the same level as child elements. The following is an example of an XML document with mixed content. It is an invoice from the bank that tells the borrower that the next payment on his or her mortgage is due:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<invoice>
    To <name>James Blandings</name>:
        Your monthly payment of $2000.00 on 
        <property>The Hackett Place</property>
        is due in three weeks. Thanks.
    From your friends at XML Bank.
        <location>12 Schema Place</location>
        <city>New York</city>
        <state>NY</state>
</invoice>

As you can see, both text and elements are mixed inside the <invoice> element in this example. How can you declare an element like this? You can start by using an anonymous type inside the declaration for the <invoice> element. Note that to indicate that this element can handle mixed content, you set the <complexType> element's mixed attribute to "true":

<xsd:element name="invoice">
    <xsd:complexType mixed="true">

       .

       .

       .

       </xsd:complexType>
 </xsd:element>

All you have to do now is add the declarations for the elements that you can use inside the <invoice> element, like this:

<xsd:element name="invoice">
    <xsd:complexType mixed="true">
        <xsd:sequence>

               <xsd:element name="name" type="xsd:string"/>

               <xsd:element name="property" type="xsd:string"/>

               <xsd:element name="location" type="xsd:string"/>

               <xsd:element name="city" type="xsd:string"/>

               <xsd:element name="state" type="xsd:string"/>

           </xsd:sequence>
    </xsd:complexType>
 </xsd:element>

When you were working with DTDs on Day 4, "Creating Valid XML Documents: DTDs," you were able to create mixed-content elements of a sort, but you couldn't specify the order, or the number, of the child elements in an element by using a mixed-content model. With XML schemas, you have more power. You can indeed specify the order and number of child elements in a mixed-content element. That is to say, whereas DTDs provide only partial support for mixed-content models, schemas provide a more complete syntax that allows you to specify the order and number of child elements in mixed-content elements.

However, it is important to note that although you can declare mixed-content elements, you should avoid doing so if possible. In the mixed-content document you just saw, the XML elements such as <name> and <property> are used almost as you would use HTML elements to format a document for visual display. Ideally in XML documents, all data is enclosed inside elements. Here's how you might restructure the mixed-content document into a standard XML document:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<invoice>
    <to>James Blandings</to>
    <for>The Hackett Place</for>
    <amount>$2000.00</amount>
    <text>Your monthly payment is due in three weeks. Thanks.</text>
    <name>XML Bank.</name>
    <location>12 Schema Place</location>
    <city>New York</city>
    <state>NY</state>
</invoice>

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