[eml-dev] EML 2.0.2 changes to text leaf nodes

[Christopher Jones]

Hi all,

Margaret and I were discussing changes to EML slated for the 2.0.2  
bugfix release, and a frequent request that I have seen involves  
elements that are xs:string leaf nodes throughout the schema.  There  
are places within the EML schema that we consciously decided to type  
the leaf node as an eml-text node (txt:TextType) in order to provide  
DocBook-type formatting capabilities.  However, there have been many  
requests for formatting options in text leaf node elements where it is  
not allowed.

The proposal is to convert all leaf nodes in the EML schema that are  
currently typed as xs:string to be of type txt:TextType so they may  
all take advantage of the formatting options.

A required change in eml-text.xsd is:

<ComplexType name="TextType"> becomes <ComplexType name="TextType"  
mixed="true">

An example would be:

EML 2.0.1 title element:
<xs:element name="title" type="xs:string" maxOccurs="unbounded">

EML 2.0.2 proposed title element:
<xs:element name="title" type="txt:TextType" maxOccurs="unbounded">


This would allow for backwards compatible markup such as:
<eml>
   <dataset>
     <title>My Title Text</title>
     ...
   </dataset>
</eml>

and also:

<eml>
   <dataset>
     <title><emphasis>My Title Text</emphasis></title>
     ...
   </dataset>
</eml>

This change should be backward compatible with EML 2.0.1 in that an  
element of type txt:TextType can take a plain xs:string without any  
other markup.

So, we wanted to open this type of change up to the community for  
comment since it would affect all of the text nodes in the EML schema,  
even though the changes aren't immense.

Can anyone see downsides to this type of change?

Other comments?

Cheers,
Chris
_________________________________________________________________
christopher jones       cjones at msi.ucsb.edu      (805) 680-5946
marine science institute  university of california, santa barbara
_________________________________________________________________