A Graphical Based Approach to the Conceptual Modeling, Validation and Generation of XML Schema Definitions

This paper discusses the research and development of a modeling tool that provides a graphical approach to the definition, validation and generation of XML schemas. Although XML has had a ubiquitous web presence for a number of years the strength of its underlying validation framework is often not leveraged to its maximum potential. Additionally the design process followed when developing XML data formats is often rather ad-hoc and driven by technical requirements of the application rather than a conceptual level analysis of the problem domain. This work contributes to research knowledge by proposing and validating a mechanism for allowing non-programmers to easily visualise and design the rules to which XML documents should comply. The use of an underlying meta-case platform provides a unique opportunity to allow highly customisable support and automatic code generation for any number of schema definition languages, thus providing a test-bed for future research activities.