Chapter 17. The System.Xml.Schema Namespace

The System.Xml.Schema namespace is responsible for .NET's implementation of the W3C XML Schema specification, a mechanism for constraining the content of XML documents. In .NET, an XML Schema document (XSD) can also be used to generate classes that know how to serialize themselves to and from XML (see the System.Xml.Serialization namespace for more on serialization). .NET supports Version 1.0 of XML Schema, Section 1 (XML Schemas for Structures), and Section 2 (XML Schemas for Data Types). Documentation for Section 1 is available online at http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-1, and documentation for Section 2 is at http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2. For more information about the XML Schema specification, see XML Schema, by Eric van der Vlist (O'Reilly).

All types in this namespace that represent an element of an XML Schema document derive from the XmlSchemaObject type, although there are numerous intermediate base classes. Other types in this namespace include those used to collect related XML Schema objects, such as XmlSchemaObjectCollection, and those used to provide additional information about the XML Schema validation process, such as ValidationEventArgs.

Figure 17-1, Figure 17-2, and Figure 17-3 show the many types in this namespace.

Figure 17-1. XMLSchemaObject and derived types

Figure 17-2. More descendants of XMLSchemaObject

Figure 17-3. Remaining types from System.Xml.Schema