DSD - Document Structure Description

Grammars for XML documents

1. Schema languages - some motivation
   1. Using schema validators - the big picture
   2. Design requirements - what do we need in a schema language?
2. The DSD processing model - top-down processing
3. Components of a DSD - an overview
   1. A tiny example - a DSD and a conforming application document
4. Element descriptions - the central construct
5. Constraints - constraining element contents and attributes
   1. Reuse - definitions and references
6. Boolean expressions - combining constraints
7. Attribute declarations and descriptions - permitting presence of attributes
8. String types - regular expressions for character data and attribute values
9. Content expressions - defining valid element contents
   1. Multiple content descriptions - specifying unordered contents
10. Context patterns - referring to ancestor elements
11. Default insertion - defining defaults for element attributes and content
    1. An example - a default definition
    2. Application document defaults - local default definitions
12. ID attributes and points-to requirements - extending the DTD ID/IDREF mechanism
13. Redefinitions and evolving DSDs - document inclusion and overriding definitions
    1. Extending existing documents - document inclusion
    2. Modifying existing definitions - overriding definitions with RenewID/CurrIDRef
14. Self-documentation - comments in DSDs
15. The Meta-DSD - self-describability
16. An example - the article example continued...
    1. Part I
    2. Part II
    3. Part III
    4. Part IV
17. Implementation - open-source prototype freely available
18. Other schema language proposals - W3C's XML Schema, and others...
19. Status - future development
20. Links to more information