Java Hair

Lately I have been doing a lot of work with XML Schemas.  The main thrust of the project I have been working on is to generate a Canonical XML Schema from many different XML Schemas that are used for many different reports but all report on bascially the same type of data.

In order to make better use of my time on this project I decided to take a look to see what types of tools might be available for me to use.  The budget for tools is very low so free tools were at the top of the priority list.

I decided on using NetBeans because it seemed to have more capability with XML Schemas than Eclipse did.  I have since tried Eclipse and even JDeveloper.  I found Eclipse less intuitive to use than NetBeans and JDeveloper about the same as NetBeans though a lot more colorful.

When working with XML Schemas, NetBeans provides 3 different views that you can work with.  The Source, Schema, and Design views.

The Source view allows you to work directly with the schema file itself.  This can be quite a time saver when copying and pasting element definitions or when moving elements or types around.  It provides color coding and the right-click menu will allow you to Check or Validate your schema in addition to formatting it so everything lines up correctly.  Just as in the other views you can use Goto from the right-click menu to switch to one of the other views.

The Schema view is where I started off doing most of my work.  It allows you to right click and create new types or elements with a wizard type interface.  Customizing the elements and changing properties can also be done here, very handy if you can’t remember the syntax for a particular attribute.  Copying and pasting can be done in the Schema view but I still haven’t quite gotten the hang of it and I find it much easier in the source code view.  The Schema view does provide the ability to refactor an element or type and rename it so that it becomes renamed in any other schemas in the project that reference it.  This alone makes it worth the price of admission even if you mostly work with the source view.

I found the wizards to be extremely helpful in developing schemas for the reason most wizard-type interfaces are useful, I did not have to remember the specific details of the syntax, I could just choose the properties I wanted.  When choosing an existing built-in type, a small window provides a description of the element which made it really easy to choose the types I wanted.  The biggest drawback which seems like an oversight is the inability to add properties to the element you are creating inside the wizard, you can choose the type of element and name it, but if you want to change the properties, such as minOccurs or nillable, you have to create the element and then right-click and bring up the properties window where it can be changed.

The Design view provides a nice picture of the schema or schemas you are working with and makes it easy to see your entire schema in a nice tree format.  I found this view especially helpful when talking about the schema with the business non-techie folk.  I had started a review in Eclipse but found it’s view hard for me to work with and not as easy for the non-techies to grasp, switching to the NetBeans view made the conversations much easier.  One issue I noticed with this view is that once viewed it isn’t always in sync with changes that are made to that schema file.  Sometimes it seemed to be stuck showing me the last revision or a version from a couple changes ago.  Restarting NetBeans caused it to refresh the view, but closing and re-oopening the schema itself did not.

You can also edit your schema from the design view, being able to drag and drop attributes and elements into your design as well as delete or refactor elelements and types much in the way you can in teh schema view.  Personally, I found the schema view easier to work in and the design view really nice for being able to step back and get an overall picture of the schema design.

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