Unique constraint in XML Schema

Question

Let's say I have following XML file:

<authors>
   <author>a1</author>
   <author>a2</author>
   <lastmodified>2010</lastmodified>
</authors>

and an XML schema fragment:

<xs:element name="authors" maxOccurs="1">
  <xs:complexType>
    <xs:sequence>
      <xs:element name="author" maxOccurs="unbounded" type="xs:string"> </xs:element>
      <xs:element name="lastmodified" type="xs:date" minOccurs="0"/>
    </xs:sequence>
  </xs:complexType>
  <xs:unique name="uniqueAuthor">
     <xs:selector xpath="."/>
     <xs:field xpath="author"/>
  </xs:unique>
</xs:element>

What I want is to make a constraint that will not allow two identical author values, but the one above doesn't work that way. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

The selector XPath selects the nodes that must be unique (in that case, it should select the author nodes).

The field XPath selects what "makes them unique" (in that case, using . will cause their typed value, in that case the text between the tags, treated as a string, to be used).

The document

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<authors>
  <author>a1</author>
  <author>a2</author>
  <lastmodified>2010-01-01</lastmodified>
</authors>

should be valid against the following schema:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <xs:element name="authors">
    <xs:complexType>
      <xs:sequence>
        <xs:element name="author" maxOccurs="unbounded" type="xs:string"/>
        <xs:element name="lastmodified" type="xs:date" minOccurs="0"/>
      </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>
    <xs:unique name="uniqueAuthor">
      <xs:selector xpath="author"/>
      <xs:field xpath="."/>
    </xs:unique>
  </xs:element>
</xs:schema>

while this one should not:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<authors>
  <author>a1</author>
  <author>a1</author>
  <lastmodified>2010-01-01</lastmodified>
</authors>

Answer 2

You could use type="xs:ID" on the author element. There is also type IDREF for referring to an ID.