Schema Node Properties

  • Article

 

When you select the Schema node in BizTalk Editor, you can examine and set its associated properties in the Visual Studio Properties window. All schemas share a set of properties that are divided into the following categories:

  • Advanced. This category contains properties that correspond to XSD concepts that can be categorized as advanced, such as data type derivations.

  • BizTalk. This category contains properties that are related to processing and usability features that are specific to Microsoft BizTalk Server.

  • General. This category contains properties that correspond to XSD concepts that can be categorized as basic, such as setting the data type of the corresponding element or attribute.

  • Reference. This category contains properties that are related to categorizing the business purpose of the schema and the industry standards to which it conforms.

Many of the properties associated with Schema nodes correspond directly to the semantics of XML Schema definition language (XSD) constructs.For links to information about XSD concepts and specifications, see XSD Resources on the Web.

Note

Some Schema node properties are automatically enabled or disabled, or shown or hidden, depending on the values of other node properties.

The following table shows the properties that are associated with the Schema node, and that are available in all schemas.

Property name Category Description
Attribute FormDefault Advanced Specifies whether locally declared attributes must be qualified by using a namespace identifier throughout instance messages.
BlockDefault Advanced Specifies the default setting for whether or not derivations are permitted throughout the schema, and if so, which kinds (extension, restriction, and so on).
CodeList Database BizTalk Specifies the name and location of the database containing code lists used to set enumeration values at design-time.
Document Type Reference Specifies the type of schema that you are configuring, using whatever document type specification makes sense for your business.
Document Version Reference Specifies the version of the schema that you are configuring, using whatever versioning scheme makes sense for your business.
Element FormDefault Advanced Specifies whether locally declared elements must be qualified by using a namespace identifier throughout instance messages.
Envelope Reference Specifies whether the schema represents an envelope.
FinalDefault Advanced Specifies whether a type can be used as the basis for particular types of derivations.
Imports Advanced Specifies all of the namespaces that are used in the schema and provides the interface for importing, including, and redefining other schemas within the schema being edited.
Node Name General Displays the name of the node as it appears in the schema tree view.
Promote Properties BizTalk Opens the Promote Properties dialog box in which you can specify the properties that you want to promote to the property context container.
Receipt Reference Specifies whether the schema represents an inbound receipt message.
Root Reference Reference Specifies the node that represents the outermost element in the XML business document represented by the schema, and is important when you have created more than one top-level node in the schema.
Schema Editor Extensions Advanced Allows selection of the BizTalk Editor extensions to be associated with the selected schema.
Schema File Location General Displays the file system location of the schema file associated with the schema being edited.
Schema Type Reference Specifies the type of the selected schema as either a document schema or a property schema.
Specification Name Reference Specifies a business name for the schema.
Standard Reference Specifies the format and/or syntax of the instance message.
Standard Version Reference Specifies the version of the format and/or syntax of the instance message, if appropriate.
Target Namespace General Specifies the target namespace for the schema using any valid uniform resource identifier (URI).

When you select the Schema node in BizTalk Editor and you have enabled the Flat File Extension using the Schema Editor Extensions property, you can examine and set additional properties in the Visual Studio Properties window. These properties are divided into the existing category Reference andthe new category Flat File, the latter of which contains those properties related to parsing flat files in equivalent XML files and serializing XML files back into flat files.

The following table shows the supplemental properties that are available for the Schema node when the Flat File Extension is enabled.

Flat file property name Category Description
Case Flat File Specifies whether data in instance messages should be converted to all uppercase, converted to all lowercase, or left as is.
Code Page Flat File Specifies the code page to use with an instance message.
Count Positions In Bytes Reference Specifies whether the positions will be counted in bytes.
Default Child Delimiter Flat File Specifies the default string used to delimit fields and subordinate records in instance data.
Default Child Delimiter Type Flat File Specifies how an alternative default child delimiter string will be expressed in the Default Child Delimiter property and in the underlying XSD representation.
Default Child Order Flat File Specifies the default relationship between delimiters and the data they delimit.
Default Escape Character Flat File Specifies a character to be used as the default escape character throughout an instance message. An escape character causes the following character to be interpreted as simple data, and not have the special meaning otherwise associated with it.
Default Escape Character Type Flat File Specifies how an alternative default escape character will be expressed in the Default Escape Character property and in the underlying XSD representation.
Default Repeating Delimiter Flat File Specifies the default string used to delimit repeating fields and subordinate records in instance data.
Default Repeating Delimiter Type Flat File Specifies how a default alternative repeating delimiter string will be expressed in the Default Repeating Delimiter property and in the underlying XSD representation.
Default Wrap Character Flat File Specifies a character to be used as the default wrap character throughout an instance message. Wrap characters cause the characters that occur between them to be interpreted as simple data, and not have the special meaning otherwise associated with it.
Default Wrap Character Type Flat File Specifies how an alternative wrap character will be expressed in the Default Wrap Character property and in the underlying XSD representation.
Restricted Characters Reference Specifies ranges of characters that are restricted in instance messages.

The following table lists additional flat file node properties that do not appear in the Schema Editor. Using these properties requires hand editing the schema file in a text editor.

Property Values Default Value Description
suppress_empty_nodes true or false false Indicates whether or not to remove empty XML nodes after the parser generates XML instance data.
generate_empty_nodes true or false true Generate empty nodes for records that exist in the XML instance data.
parser_optimization speed or complexity speed Optimizing for speed decreases the parsing time but at the cost of dealing with some ambiguities in data. Optimizing for complexity handles a wider range of ambiguities but at the cost of processing speed.
lookahead_depth Any positive integer; zero (0) indicates infinite lookahead. 3 How far to look ahead for matching data.
allow_early_termination true or false false Indicates whether positional records can terminate early (true) or must contain data for all record fields (false).
early_terminate_optional_fields true or false false Enable early termination of optional trailing fields (true). If the existing schema without this annotation is opened in the BizTalk Editor, this annotation will be added to it with the default value set to (false). Note: The early_terminate_optional_fields annotation only takes effect if the allow_early_termination is set to (true).

All of these properties are attributes of the /annotation/appinfo/schemaInfo element.

When parser_optimization is set to complexity, you may have validation failures against a schema when there are many optional nodes in the same group or record. You may need to set lookahead_depth to zero (0) to avoid validation errors.

See Also

Node Properties - By Node Type
Node Properties - Alphabetical Listings