Altova XMLSpy 2025 Professional Edition

Altova website: AltovaWebLink XML Schema Editor

 

XML Schemas can be viewed and edited graphically in Schema View (screenshot below). The graphical interface enables you to build schemas quickly and accurately using typical GUI features. Schema View has two panes: (i) an upper pane for designing the structural relationships between schema components; and (ii) a lower pane for definitions related to the component selected in the upper pane. There are also three entry helpers that greatly facilitate the creation of valid schemas: the Components, Details, and Facets entry helpers.

SchemaOverview01

 

Upper pane: schema design

The upper pane of Schema View can be switched between two views:

 

Schema Overview displays all global components of the schema (such as global elements and complex types) in a simple tabular list (see screenshot). By clicking the icon of a global component you can switch to the Content Model View of that global component. Note that not all global components can have a content model (for example, simple types).

Content Model View displays the content model of the selected global component (see screenshot). To return to Schema Overview, click the Show Globals icon at the top left of the upper pane.

 

SViewIconShowContentModel

Switch to Content Model View: Available for global components that have a content model. Opens the global component's content model in Content Model View.

ic_back2global

Show Globals: Available in Content Model View. Switches to Schema Overview.

 

Lower pane: Attributes, Assertions, and Identity Constraints

The lower pane of Schema View (see screenshot) contains tabs for the definitions of Attributes, Assertions, and Identity Constraints of the component selected in the design (upper pane). We call this pane the AAIDC pane for short.

 

In XSD 1.0 mode, the lower pane has two tabs: (i) Attributes, and (ii) Identity Constraints.

In XSD 1.1 mode, the lower pane has three tabs: (i) Attributes, (ii) Assertions, and (iii) Identity Constraints.

 

The AAIDC pane is always present in Schema Overview and may be present in Content Model View. In Content Model View, all three types of definitions (attributes, assertions, IDCs) can be displayed in the diagram instead of in the AAIDC pane. To do this, toggle the respective Schema Design toolbar buttons on: (i) Display attributes in diagram, (ii) Display assertions in diagram, and (iii) Display identity constraints in diagram. Alternatively, you can specify these preferences in the Schema Display Configuration dialog (Schema Design | Configure View). When all the definition-types of the AAIDC pane are displayed in the diagram, the lower pane will no longer be visible in Content Model View.

 

Schema settings

The Schema Settings dialog (Schema Design | Schema Settings) is accessed from Schema View and lets you define global settings for the active schema. These settings are the attributes of the xs:schema element.

 

Organization of this section

This section is organized into the following sub-sections

 

XSD Mode: XSD 1.0 or 1.1: Select between the two editing modes

Schema Overview: Edit the properties of global components

Content Model View: Edit the content models of individual global components

Attributes, Assertions, and Identity Constraints: Define these particular properties of components

Entry Helpers: Use these to quickly define various properties of components

Smart Restrictions: Graphically create and edit derived types from base types

Using xml: prefixed attributes: Add the base, id, lang, and space attributes graphically to schema components

Back and Forward: Moving through Positions explains a Schema View feature that enables you to move through previously viewed positions

 

Connecting to SchemaAgent

From XMLSpy you can also connect to SchemaAgent in order to display components from other schemas in the GUI and to use these components in the schema being currently edited. How to work with SchemaAgent in XMLSpy is described in the section Working with SchemaAgent.

 

Find in schemas

The Find in Schemas features enables intelligent searches in schemas, i.e., searches that are restricted by various schema-related criteria. For example, searches may be restricted to certain component types, thus making the search more efficient. Find in Schemas is described in the DTDs and XML Schemas section.

 

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