Canonical XML Validation Service?

[Farrukh Najmi <Farrukh.Najmi@Sun.COM>]

Dear Colleagues,

As you know we have a required Canonical XML Cataloging Service in ebRS 
that specifies use of XSLT stylesheets as invocation control file for 
cataloging XML Content.
This is a very powerful feature because it allows declarative 
alternative to programming a cataloging service for objectTypes that are 
XML based.

For the next version of our specs, I would like to propose that we do 
the same concept with a new "Canonical XML Validation Service" that 
specifies use of Schematron language as invocation control file for 
validating XML Content. This would enable a declarative alternative to 
programming a validation service for objectTypes that are XML based.

Consider the case for specifying business rules required by the "ebXML 
Profile for Web Services". The following example illustrates how simply 
it could be expressed in Schematron rather than programming a validation 
service:

<schema xmlns="http://www.ascc.net/xml/schematron";>
    <title>A Schematron rules file for validating WSDL according to the 
ebXML Registry profile for Web Services</title>
  <pattern name="Section 6.2 Business Rules: First rule">
    <rule context="wsdl:binding">
      <assert test="soap:binding">Validation Error: WSDL Binding MUST be 
a SOAP Binding</assert>
    </rule>
  </pattern>
  <pattern name="Section 6.2 Business Rules: Second rule">
    <rule context="soap:binding">
      <assert test="string(@style) = 'document'">Validation Error: WSDL 
SOAP Binding MUST use Document style</assert>
    </rule>
  </pattern>
  <pattern name="Section 6.2 Business Rules: Second rule">
    <rule context="soap:binding">
        <assert test="string(@transport) = 
'http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http'">Validation Error: WSDL SOAP 
Binding MUST use HTTP transport</assert>
    </rule>
  </pattern>
</schema>

As you can see this is a very powerful feature as the alternative is to 
program a validation service as a SOAP endpoint and deploy it somewhere.
With this feature it is all self-contained within the registry.

What do folks think of adding this as a feature in next version of the 
specs?

-- 
Regards,
Farrukh


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