Validating a SOAP document using XSD

[John Fairbairn]

Hey all,
New to SOAP...
What I'd like to do is validate that the XML in the soap header has all the elements I need in the correct sequence. I'd also like to validate that the xml within the soap body has all the elements I need in the correct sequence.
My SOAP document looks like:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<SOAP:Envelope xmlns:SOAP="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
<SOAP:Header>
<Origin>ITH_IMAN or ITH_ETC or ITH_TC or ITH_F3</Origin>
<OriginPlant>TransmissionComponents</OriginPlant>
<Destination>ITH_IMAN or ITH_ETC or ITH_TC or ITH_F3</Destination>
<MessageType>ITEM or REPLY or ITEMCOST</MessageType>
<UniqueID>YYYYMMDDHHMMSSXXXX</UniqueID>
<ID>ID</ID>
</SOAP:Header>
<SOAP:Body>
<Reply>
<Destination>ITH_ETC</Destination>
<MessageType>ITEM</MessageType>
<UniqueID>YYYYMMDDHHMMSSXXXX</UniqueID>
<ID>ID</ID>
<ReplyType>SUCCESS or FAIL or NOTIFY or EXCEPTION</ReplyType>
<DBAction>INSERT or UPDATE</DBAction>
<Comment>Comment</Comment>
</Reply>
</SOAP:Body>
</SOAP:Envelope> 

Should I create an XSD for just the XML within the SOAP body? Is it possible to create an XSD to validate that the <SOAP:Header> contains all the required elements in the correct sequence?
John

[Christophe Grosjean]

I'm not sure to understand clearly your needs.
If you want to validate only your SOAP header, you can define an XSD for the whole document, specifying that <soap:envelope> is an element containing a <soap:header> (which you fully specify in the xsd) and any other element (corresponding to your body) with <xsd:any/> in your schema

[John Fairbairn]

Hi Christophe,
I want to validate the entire SOAP document. I'll explain my problem more clearly.
I created the following SOAP document:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<SOAP:Envelope xmlns:SOAP="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
<SOAP:Header>
<Origin>ITH_IMAN or ITH_ETC or ITH_TC or ITH_F3</Origin>
<OriginPlant>TransmissionComponents</OriginPlant>
<Destination>ITH_IMAN or ITH_ETC or ITH_TC or ITH_F3</Destination>
<MessageType>ITEM or REPLY or ITEMCOST</MessageType>
<UniqueID>YYYYMMDDHHMMSSXXXX</UniqueID>
<ID>ID</ID>
</SOAP:Header>
<SOAP:Body>
<Reply>
<Destination>ITH_ETC</Destination>
<MessageType>ITEM</MessageType>
<UniqueID>YYYYMMDDHHMMSSXXXX</UniqueID>
<ID>ID</ID>
<ReplyType>SUCCESS or FAIL or NOTIFY or EXCEPTION</ReplyType>
<DBAction>INSERT or UPDATE</DBAction>
<Comment>Comment</Comment>
</Reply>
</SOAP:Body>
</SOAP:Envelope>
 

I used XML Spy to generate a schema for me given this xml. The generated schema looked like:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!--W3C Schema generated by XMLSPY v5 (http://www.xmlspy.com)-->
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" elementFormDefault="qualified">
<xs:element name="Comment" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="DBAction" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="Destination" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="ID" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="MessageType" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="Origin" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="OriginPlant" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:complexType name="ReplyType">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="Destination" ref="Destination"/>
<xs:element name="MessageType" ref="MessageType"/>
<xs:element name="UniqueID" ref="UniqueID"/>
<xs:element name="ID" ref="ID"/>
<xs:element name="ReplyType" ref="ReplyType"/>
<xs:element name="DBAction" ref="DBAction"/>
<xs:element name="Comment" ref="Comment"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="ReplyType" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:complexType name="SOAP:BodyType">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="Reply" type="ReplyType"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="SOAP:Envelope">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="SOAP:Header" type="SOAP:HeaderType"/>
<xs:element name="SOAP:Body" type="SOAP:BodyType"/>
</xs:sequence>
<xs:attribute name="xmlns:SOAP" type="xs:anyURI" use="required"/>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:complexType name="SOAP:HeaderType">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="Origin" ref="Origin"/>
<xs:element name="OriginPlant" ref="OriginPlant"/>
<xs:element name="Destination" ref="Destination"/>
<xs:element name="MessageType" ref="MessageType"/>
<xs:element name="UniqueID" ref="UniqueID"/>
<xs:element name="ID" ref="ID"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="UniqueID" type="xs:string"/>
</xs:schema>
 

When I try saving the schema, I get an error:

SOAP:BodyType cannot have a namespace prefix. Please remove prefix or use ref=instead!

How do I reference the SOAP namespace in my XSD? Can you reference a namespace in the name attribute of an element?
Thanks for your help.
John

[John Fairbairn]

Hi Christophe,
I want to validate the entire SOAP document. I'll explain my problem more clearly.
I created the following SOAP document:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<SOAP:Envelope xmlns:SOAP="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
<SOAP:Header>
<Origin>ITH_IMAN or ITH_ETC or ITH_TC or ITH_F3</Origin>
<OriginPlant>TransmissionComponents</OriginPlant>
<Destination>ITH_IMAN or ITH_ETC or ITH_TC or ITH_F3</Destination>
<MessageType>ITEM or REPLY or ITEMCOST</MessageType>
<UniqueID>YYYYMMDDHHMMSSXXXX</UniqueID>
<ID>ID</ID>
</SOAP:Header>
<SOAP:Body>
<Reply>
<Destination>ITH_ETC</Destination>
<MessageType>ITEM</MessageType>
<UniqueID>YYYYMMDDHHMMSSXXXX</UniqueID>
<ID>ID</ID>
<ReplyType>SUCCESS or FAIL or NOTIFY or EXCEPTION</ReplyType>
<DBAction>INSERT or UPDATE</DBAction>
<Comment>Comment</Comment>
</Reply>
</SOAP:Body>
</SOAP:Envelope>
 

I used XML Spy to generate a schema for me given this xml. The generated schema looked like:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!--W3C Schema generated by XMLSPY v5 (http://www.xmlspy.com)-->
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" elementFormDefault="qualified">
<xs:element name="Comment" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="DBAction" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="Destination" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="ID" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="MessageType" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="Origin" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="OriginPlant" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:complexType name="ReplyType">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="Destination" ref="Destination"/>
<xs:element name="MessageType" ref="MessageType"/>
<xs:element name="UniqueID" ref="UniqueID"/>
<xs:element name="ID" ref="ID"/>
<xs:element name="ReplyType" ref="ReplyType"/>
<xs:element name="DBAction" ref="DBAction"/>
<xs:element name="Comment" ref="Comment"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="ReplyType" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:complexType name="SOAP:BodyType">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="Reply" type="ReplyType"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="SOAP:Envelope">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="SOAP:Header" type="SOAP:HeaderType"/>
<xs:element name="SOAP:Body" type="SOAP:BodyType"/>
</xs:sequence>
<xs:attribute name="xmlns:SOAP" type="xs:anyURI" use="required"/>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:complexType name="SOAP:HeaderType">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="Origin" ref="Origin"/>
<xs:element name="OriginPlant" ref="OriginPlant"/>
<xs:element name="Destination" ref="Destination"/>
<xs:element name="MessageType" ref="MessageType"/>
<xs:element name="UniqueID" ref="UniqueID"/>
<xs:element name="ID" ref="ID"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="UniqueID" type="xs:string"/>
</xs:schema>
 

When I try saving the schema, I get an error:

SOAP:BodyType cannot have a namespace prefix. Please remove prefix or use ref=instead!

How do I reference the SOAP namespace in my XSD? Can you reference a namespace in the name attribute of an element?
Thanks for your help.
John

[Christophe Grosjean]

simply add :
xmlns:SOAP="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/
to the tag
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" elementFormDefault="qualified">
of your xsd file.
Christophe

[John Fairbairn]

Hi Christophe,
Thanks for your reply. I tried adding the new namespace so my xsd now looks like:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!--W3C Schema generated by XMLSPY v5 (http://www.xmlspy.com)-->
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" 
xmlns:SOAP="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"  elementFormDefault="qualified">
<xs:element name="Comment" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="DBAction" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="Destination" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="ID" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="MessageType" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="Origin" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:element name="OriginPlant" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:complexType name="ReplyType">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="Destination" ref="Destination"/>
<xs:element name="MessageType" ref="MessageType"/>
<xs:element name="UniqueID" ref="UniqueID"/>
<xs:element name="ID" ref="ID"/>
<xs:element name="ReplyType" ref="ReplyType"/>
<xs:element name="DBAction" ref="DBAction"/>
<xs:element name="Comment" ref="Comment"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="ReplyType" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:complexType name="SOAP:BodyType">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="Reply" type="ReplyType"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="SOAP:Envelope">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="SOAP:Header" type="SOAP:HeaderType"/>
<xs:element name="SOAP:Body" type="SOAP:BodyType"/>
</xs:sequence>
<xs:attribute name="xmlns:SOAP" type="xs:anyURI" use="required"/>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:complexType name="SOAP:HeaderType">
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="Origin" ref="Origin"/>
<xs:element name="OriginPlant" ref="OriginPlant"/>
<xs:element name="Destination" ref="Destination"/>
<xs:element name="MessageType" ref="MessageType"/>
<xs:element name="UniqueID" ref="UniqueID"/>
<xs:element name="ID" ref="ID"/>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
<xs:element name="UniqueID" type="xs:string"/>
</xs:schema>
 

When saving, I still get the error:

SOAP:BodyType cannot have a namespace prefix. Please remove prefix or use ref=instead!

Not sure why it does not recognize the namespace.