XML Schema anyAttribute Element

The anyAttribute element enables the author to extend the XML document with attributes not specified by the schema.

• Parent elements: complexType, restriction (both simpleContent and complexContent), extension (both simpleContent and complexContent), attributeGroup

<anyAttribute
id=ID
namespace=namespace
processContents=lax|skip|strict
any attributes
>
 
(annotation?)
 
</anyAttribute>

(The ? sign declares that the element can occur zero or one time inside the anyAttribute element)

• id - Optional. Specifies a unique ID for the element
• namespace - Optional. Specifies the namespaces containing the attributes that can be used. Can be set to one of the following:
  • ##any - attributes from any namespace is allowed (this is default)
  • ##other - attributes from any namespace that is not the namespace of the parent element can be present
  • ##local - attributes must come from no namespace
  • ##targetNamespace - attributes from the namespace of the parent element can be present
  • List of {URI references of namespaces, ##targetNamespace, ##local} - attributes from a space-delimited list of the namespaces can be present
• processContents - Optional. Specifies how the XML processor should handle validation against the elements specified by this any element. Can be set to one of the following:
  • strict - the XML processor must obtain the schema for the required namespaces and validate the elements (this is default)
  • lax - same as strict but; if the schema cannot be obtained, no errors will occur
  • skip - The XML processor does not attempt to validate any elements from the specified namespaces
• any attributes - Optional. Specifies any other attributes with non-schema namespace

The following example shows a declaration for an element called “person”. By using the <anyAttribute> element the author can add any number of attributes to the “person” element:

<xs:element name="person">
  <xs:complexType>
    <xs:sequence>
      <xs:element name="firstname" type="xs:string"/>
      <xs:element name="lastname" type="xs:string"/>
    </xs:sequence>
    <xs:anyAttribute/>
  </xs:complexType>
</xs:element>