“error: cvc-elt.1: Invalid type” when validating xml in Java

Question

I'm having trouble validating an XML file in Java, I keep getting the "Invalid type" error. I've been Googling and found some SO threads, which told me to add the namespace in the XML and add "ns:" everywhere, but to no avail.

The XML:

<ns:Content xmlns:ns="http://namespace">
  <ns:Request>
    <ns:FromDateTime>20130726161606</ns:FromDateTime>
    <ns:RemainderOffset/>
    <ns:MaxResults>100</ns:MaxResults>
  </ns:Request>
  <ns:Response>
    <ns:Status>
      <ns:Code>200</ns:Code>
    </ns:Status>
    <ns:Remainder>
      <ns:Count>2828</ns:Count>
      <ns:Offset>126690959</ns:Offset>
    </ns:Remainder>
    <ns:Items>
      <ns:Item id="126752560" itemHash="-1686318559">
        <ns:Title>[…]</ns:Title>
        <ns:Description>[…]</ns:Description>
        <ns:PubDate>Thu, 05 Sep 2013 06:00:27 GMT</ns:PubDate>
        <ns:Uri>[…]</ns:Uri>
        <ns:Resource>[…]</ns:Resource>
        <ns:Keywords>
          <ns:Keyword>[…]</ns:Keyword>
        </ns:Keywords>
      </ns:Item>
    </ns:Items>
  </ns:Response>
</ns:Content>

The schema:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xs:schema xmlns="http://namespace"
       xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
       targetNamespace="http://namespace"
       elementFormDefault="qualified" attributeFormDefault="unqualified">
<xs:element name="Content">
    <xs:complexType>
        <xs:sequence>
            <xs:element name="Request">
                <xs:complexType>
                    <xs:sequence>
                        <xs:element type="xs:long" name="FromDateTime"/>
                        <xs:element type="xs:string" name="RemainderOffset"/>
                        <xs:element type="xs:int" name="MaxResults"/>
                    </xs:sequence>
                </xs:complexType>
            </xs:element>
            <xs:element name="Response">
                <xs:complexType>
                    <xs:sequence>
                        <xs:element name="Status">
                            <xs:complexType>
                                <xs:sequence>
                                    <xs:element type="xs:short" name="Code"/>
                                </xs:sequence>
                            </xs:complexType>
                        </xs:element>
                        <xs:element name="Remainder">
                            <xs:complexType>
                                <xs:sequence>
                                    <xs:element type="xs:int" name="Count"/>
                                    <xs:element type="xs:int" name="Offset"/>
                                </xs:sequence>
                            </xs:complexType>
                        </xs:element>
                        <xs:element name="Items">
                            <xs:complexType>
                                <xs:sequence>
                                    <xs:element name="Item" maxOccurs="unbounded" minOccurs="0">
                                        <xs:complexType>
                                            <xs:sequence>
                                                <xs:element type="xs:string" name="Title"/>
                                                <xs:element type="xs:string" name="Description"/>
                                                <xs:element type="xs:string" name="PubDate"/>
                                                <xs:element type="xs:anyURI" name="Uri"/>
                                                <xs:element type="xs:string" name="Resource"/>
                                                <xs:element name="Keywords">
                                                    <xs:complexType mixed="true">
                                                        <xs:sequence>
                                                            <xs:element type="xs:string" name="Keyword" maxOccurs="unbounded" minOccurs="0"/>
                                                        </xs:sequence>
                                                    </xs:complexType>
                                                </xs:element>
                                            </xs:sequence>
                                            <xs:attribute type="xs:int" name="id"  use="required"/>
                                            <xs:attribute type="xs:int" name="itemHash" use="required"/>
                                        </xs:complexType>
                                    </xs:element>
                                </xs:sequence>
                            </xs:complexType>
                        </xs:element>
                    </xs:sequence>
                </xs:complexType>
            </xs:element>
        </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>
</xs:element>

And of course the code I use to read the file. It's a file I download first and it enters the method as Object o . I think the error is in here somewhere since the XML validates for this schema using online tools... I removed the try-catch blocks for readability.

main method {
    File file = (File) o;
    DocumentBuilderFactory f = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();

    DocumentBuilder b = f.newDocumentBuilder();
    Document doc = b.parse(file.getAbsolutePath());
    doc.getDocumentElement().normalize();


    // Add the correct namespace to the xml so there won't be any false positive errors
    // Got this part from SO
    Element originalDocumentElement = doc.getDocumentElement();
    Element newDocumentElement = doc.createElementNS(NAMESPACE, originalDocumentElement.getNodeName());
    newDocumentElement.setPrefix("ns");
    NodeList list = originalDocumentElement.getChildNodes();
    while(list.getLength()!=0) {
        newDocumentElement.appendChild(list.item(0));
    }
    // Replace the original element
    doc.replaceChild(newDocumentElement, originalDocumentElement);

    xmlOptions = createXmlOptions();
    xmlDoc = XmlObject.Factory.parse(doc, xmlOptions);
    validate();
}
public XmlOptions createXmlOptions()
{
    Map<String, String> substituteNamespaces = new HashMap<String, String>();
    substituteNamespaces.put("", "http://namespace");
    XmlOptions xmlOptions = new XmlOptions();
    xmlOptions.setLoadSubstituteNamespaces(substituteNamespaces);
    xmlOptions.setCharacterEncoding(FILE_ENCODING);
    xmlOptions.setErrorListener(errors);
    xmlOptions.setValidateTreatLaxAsSkip();
    return xmlOptions;
}

public boolean validate() throws ParserException {

    return xmlDoc.validate(xmlOptions);
}

Error message: error: cvc-elt.1: Invalid type

Printing error.getCursorLocation().xmlText() returns the entire XML file.

Answer 1

The schema is for namespace

targetNamespace="http://red.persgroep.be/technology/1.0"

It has nothing to say about documents in namespace

xmlns:ns="http://namespace"

You can only validate elements against a schema that is applicable to the element's namespace.

Answer 2

<ns:EndDateTime/>

is an EndDateTime element whose value is the empty string, and I don't think this is valid for an element whose type is xs:long . You have declared the element both as minOccurs="0" and nillable="true" , so you have two choices of ways to represent the absence of an EndDateTime value - you can either leave the element out altogether or you can mark it as nil using

<ns:EndDateTime xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
                xsi:nil="true"/>

Answer 3

I still don't know why I got this error, but to anyone facing the same problem: use XML Beans . Very easy to set up and even easier to use. I was able to reuse a lot of my code and it worked instantly.