We, W3C member Veo Systems Inc. hereby submit to the Consortium the following specification comprising the document(s) linked below:
which collectively are referred to as "the submission". We request the submission be known as the Schema for Object-oriented XML submission.
Automated processing of business documents in large-scale electronic commerce environments requires rigorous definition of the document structure, content and semantics to enable efficient software development processes for distributed applications. XML offers the Document Type Definition (DTD) as a formalism for defining the syntax and structure of XML documents. However, experience has shown that XML DTDs are not sufficient to specify content or semantics. Moreover, the fact that XML DTD syntax is incompatible with XML document syntax increases the complexity of supporting interoperation among heterogenous applications. Therefore, a schema facility is required to enable XML validation and higher levels of automated content checking by facilitating software mapping of XML data structures, supporting the generation of common application components, and enabling reuse at the document design and the application programming levels.
This submission proposes a schema facility, Schema for Object-oriented XML (SOX), for defining the structure, content and semantics of XML documents to enable XML validation and higher levels of automated content checking. SOX provides an alternative to XML DTDs for modeling markup relationships to enable more efficient software development processes for distributed applications. SOX also provides basic intrinsic datatypes, an extensible datatyping mechanism, content model and attribute interface inheritance, a powerful namespace mechanism, and embedded documentation. As compared to XML DTDs, SOX dramatically decreases the complexity of supporting interoperation among heterogenous applications by facilitating software mapping of XML data structures, expressing domain abstractions and common relationships directly and explicitly, enabling reuse at the document design and the application programming levels, and supporting the generation of common application components
SOX documents can be operated on by a SOX processor to produce many different types of output targets. Transformation of SOX documents will yield XML DTDs and object-oriented language classes to facilitate the development of intelligent applications, such as those needed to perform electronic commerce, for example. Other output targets from SOX includes documentation derived from the documentation-based elements in SOX itself, and user interface components. Further output targets are yet to be defined, but the inherent flexibility of SOX allows for many other options.
The SOX proposal is informed by the XML 1.0 specification as well as the XML-Data submission, the Document Content Description submission and the EXPRESS language reference manual (ISO 10303-11). A SOX document, or schema, is a valid XML document instance according to the SOX DTD, that represents a complete XML DTD-like structure. It has a document root element, and a representation of syntax that one would expect from a complete DTD, symbolically generated through the XML document instance.
Veo Systems Inc. agrees that, upon publication of this contribution as a W3C Recommendation, Veo Systems Inc. will make licenses available to its intellectual property rights in its portion of the contribution to any third party for their use, manufacture, sale, distribution, or implementation of any portion of any product, method, or procedure implementing the Recommendation under reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms and conditions including royalty rates. Veo Systems Inc. expressly reserves all other rights it may have in the material and subject matter of this contribution. Veo Systems Inc. expressly disclaims any and all warranties regarding this contribution including any warranty that this contribution does not violate the rights of others or is fit for a particular purpose.
The following are registered marks refered to in this request or the submission: Veo and veosystems.com are trademarks of Veo Systems Inc. All other product names are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of their respective owners.
The submission may be distributed within the membership of the W3C free of any fee. The submission may be distributed publicly free of any fee.
The following points should be noted as regards licensable technology involved in any third party implementations of the technology specified in the submission: N/A
We suggest that the W3C XML Schema Working Group take up this submission. This working group should work through the open issues, including those explicitly identified in the submission, finalize the specification and then submit the finalized specification as a Recommendation.
To help with this work,
Should any changes be required to the document, we would expect future versions to be produced by W3C process.
Inquiries from the public or press about this submission should be directed to:
Murray Maloney, murray@muzmo.com
this 15th day of September, 1998,
Murray Maloney, AC Representative for Veo Systems Inc.