Document Structure Description

Document Structure Description, or DSD, is a schema language for XML, that is, a language for describing valid XML documents. It s an alternative to DTD or the W3C XML Schema.

An example of DSD in its simplest form:

<dsd xmlns= http://www.brics.dk/DSD/2.0 xmlns:my= http://example.com > <if><element name= my:foo /> <declare> <attribute name= first /> <attribute name= second /> <contents> <element name= my:bar /> </contents> </declare> </if> <if><element name= my:bar /> <declare> <contents> </contents> </declare> </if> </dsd>

This says that element named foo in the XML namespace http://example.com may have two attributes, named first and second . A foo element may not have any character data. It must contain one subelement, named bar , also in the http://example.com namespace. A bar element is not allowed any attributes, character data or subelements.

One XML document that would be valid according to the above DSD would be:

<foo xmlns= http://example.com second= 2 > <bar/> </foo>

= External links =

*[http://www.brics.dk/DSD/ DSD home page] *[http://www.brics.dk/DSD/dsd2.html Full DSD specification] *[http://www.brics.dk/~amoeller/XML/schemas/ Comparison of DTD, W3C XML Schema, and DSD]