在没有XSD的情况下验证XML

Question

I have an XML file coming in and need that to have a few specific tags without that I cannot process that file. How can I make sure if those tags are there or not , I tried using the XSD validation but file format keeps changing and they keep sending additional tags which I do not need to process the file , but having those additional tags does not harm my process.

Is there a way to write the XSD in a way that it only looks for a few tags and ignore the others?

Answer 1

You can create an xsd in which you have all of the elements you require. By default an element has minOccurs=1 , which would imply that it's required. Then in order to ignore all of the rest you need to add <xs:any processContents="lax" macOccurs="unbounded"/> , which basically says that the xml may contain any number of additional elements which do not need to be validated.

Answer 2

Consider forgoing an XSD and instead writing XPath checks against the XML to test known-invariant properties of your XSD. XSD is better for when you have a known, relatively static grammar. Ad hoc XPath assertions or Schematron would be better for XML that can't be held do a definitive grammar.