xs:any

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Sample Schema

Consider the following schema, Root must contain the child elements A, B, C and another element (which can be anything).

any.xsd	Copy Code
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <!--Created with Liquid Studio 2018 (https://www.liquid-technologies.com)--> <xs:schema elementFormDefault="qualified" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"> <xs:element name="Root"> <xs:complexType> <xs:sequence> <xs:element name="A" type="xs:string" /> <xs:element name="B" type="xs:int" /> <xs:element name="C" type="xs:date" /> <xs:any namespace="##any" processContents="lax" /> </xs:sequence> </xs:complexType> </xs:element> </xs:schema>

any.xsd

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<!--Created with Liquid Studio 2018 (https://www.liquid-technologies.com)-->
<xs:schema elementFormDefault="qualified" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <xs:element name="Root">
        <xs:complexType>
            <xs:sequence>
                <xs:element name="A" type="xs:string" />
                <xs:element name="B" type="xs:int" />
                <xs:element name="C" type="xs:date" />
                <xs:any namespace="##any" processContents="lax" />
            </xs:sequence>
        </xs:complexType>
    </xs:element>
</xs:schema>

Generated Code

The following code is generated for the any.xsd

Generated Code	Copy Code
public partial class RootElm { public RootSeq Seq { get; set; } = new RootSeq(); public partial class RootSeq { public System.String A { get; set; } = ""; public System.Int32 B { get; set; } public LxDateTime C { get; set; } public XElement AnyElement { get; set; } } }

Generated Code

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    public partial class RootElm
    {
        public RootSeq Seq { get; set; } = new RootSeq();

        public partial class RootSeq
        {
            public System.String A { get; set; } = "";
            public System.Int32 B { get; set; }
            public LxDateTime C { get; set; }
            public XElement AnyElement { get; set; }
        }
    }

The Lx... attributes, qualifying namespaces and comments have been removed for clarity.

The xs:any is represented by the property AnyElement which is of type System.Xml.Linq.XElement. In this example our xs:any can contain any element in any namespace, but it is possible to limit the namespace (in XSD 1.1 you can also limit the name). If limitations are placed on the value of the xs:any then they are validated on serialization and deserialization, they are not validated when the property AnyElement is set (e.g. AnyElement can contain any element even if its not valid against the schema).

If xs:any had a maxOccurs greater than 1 then this would be a collection of System.Xml.Linq.XElement's.

You may notice that the xs:any in the schema is required, but the AnyElement property generated from is does not set a default value. This is the default behaviour, but the generation setting 'xs:any default name' allows a default element to be created for it. i.e.

With 'xs:any default name' set to 'MyDefaultElementName@MyNamespace'	Copy Code
public XElement AnyElement { get; set; } = new XElement(((XNamespace)"MyNamespace") + "MyDefaultElementName");

Writing Sample Code

We can use the following code to build instances of the Root Element

Sample Code	Copy Code
LxSerializer<RootElm> serializer = new LxSerializer<RootElm>(); RootElm root = new RootElm(); root.Seq.A = "ValueA"; root.Seq.B = 4; root.Seq.C = LxDateTime.Today; root.Seq.AnyElement = new XElement("Other", new XText("My Value")); serializer.Serialize(@"..\..\Any_Output.xml", root);

Sample Code

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LxSerializer<RootElm> serializer = new LxSerializer<RootElm>();

RootElm root = new RootElm();
root.Seq.A = "ValueA";
root.Seq.B = 4;
root.Seq.C = LxDateTime.Today;
root.Seq.AnyElement = new XElement("Other", new XText("My Value"));
serializer.Serialize(@"..\..\Any_Output.xml", root);

Sample Output

Any_Output.xml	Copy Code
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <Root> <A>ValueA</A> <B>4</B> <C>2018-10-02Z</C> <Other>My Value</Other> </Root>

Reading Sample Code

The following code will read back in the files created above.

Sample Code	Copy Code
LxSerializer<RootElm> serializer = new LxSerializer<RootElm>(); RootElm root = serializer.Deserialize(@"..\..\Any_Output.xml"); // OK Debug.Assert(root.Seq.A == "ValueA"); Debug.Assert(root.Seq.B == 4); Debug.Assert(root.Seq.C == LxDateTime.Today); Debug.Assert(root.Seq.AnyElement != null); Debug.Assert(root.Seq.AnyElement.Name.LocalName == "Other"); Debug.Assert(root.Seq.AnyElement.Name.NamespaceName == ""); Debug.Assert(root.Seq.AnyElement.Value == "My Value");

Sample Code

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LxSerializer<RootElm> serializer = new LxSerializer<RootElm>();

RootElm root = serializer.Deserialize(@"..\..\Any_Output.xml"); // OK
Debug.Assert(root.Seq.A == "ValueA");
Debug.Assert(root.Seq.B == 4);
Debug.Assert(root.Seq.C == LxDateTime.Today);
Debug.Assert(root.Seq.AnyElement != null);
Debug.Assert(root.Seq.AnyElement.Name.LocalName == "Other");
Debug.Assert(root.Seq.AnyElement.Name.NamespaceName == "");
Debug.Assert(root.Seq.AnyElement.Value == "My Value");

When the valid XML file Any_Output.xml is read it produces an object model identical to the one serialized out in the code above.

Generated Code

Visual Studio Extension

Visual Studio Code Generation Options

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