Performing XML Data Validation in the Global Force Management Data Initiative

摘要

This report describes the validation performed on data produced by the Global Force Management (GFM) Data Initiative (DI) project. Extensible Markup Language (XML) was chosen for the data exchange protocol because of its popularity and widespread support. The GFM data model, written in an object- oriented form, not only normalizes data, but also defines objects with parent/child hierarchical relationships. Since XML is a hierarchical language, the GFM XML schema is able to perform a more thorough analysis of hierarchical data than the same data presented in relational form. Due to the limitations of XSD tests, I wrote XML Stylesheet Language: Transformations (XSLT) scripts to perform additional structural and business rule validations on GFM XML data. This report contains descriptions and sample code from all of the GFM XSD modules. After an introduction to data validation with XSLT, the tests performed by both scripts are shown and explained. I present instructions on how to validate GFM XML data, along with sample results, and discuss the strengths and shortcomings of the validation process.