XML Schema design for search WS

[Saašha Metsärantala <saasha@acc.umu.se>]

Hello!

I have read parts of the XML Schemas available through
http://www.loc.gov/standards/sru/oasis/ and reflected about their design. 
In this e-mail, I will focus on the number of possible root elements. As 
an introductory example, let us consider the following code snippet:

echo '<count xmlns="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ns/search-ws/facetedResults";>3</count>' | xmllint --schema facetedResults.xsd -

which answers:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<count xmlns="http://docs.oasis-open.org/ns/search-ws/facetedResults";>3</count>

- validates

Similar results are possible with other elements or with other of these 
schemas. This result is consistent with the schema, but is it really what 
we want? Should such a short XML document with no more than one element be 
considered a valid document?

Maybe, we could choose another XML Schema design, appropriately limiting 
the number of root elements.

Regards!

Saašha,