Simple types

XML schema element declarations can have simple or complex types. Elements with no element content and no attributes are declared with a simple type in the XML schema. Attribute declarations can have simple types. In general, elements with simple types and attributes are mapped to fields in Designer. The type of the field is determined from the simple type value.

Built-in simple types

The XML Schema defines a number of built-in simple types.

The following types are mapped to a Text Field object, which is any object with plain text content:

string
normalizedString
token
Name
NCName
QName
language

The following types are mapped to the numeric field object:

float
double
decimal
integer
long
int
short
byte
positiveInteger
nonPositiveInteger
negativeInteger
nonNegativeInteger
unsignedLong
unsignedInt
unsignedShort
unsignedByte

The date and time types mappings are listed in the following table:

Date and time	Object type
duration	Text edit field
dateTime	Date/time field. The control type is Date and Time.
date	Date/time field. The control type is Date.
time	Date/time field. The control type is Time.
gYear	Text field with picture clause.
gYearMonth	Text field with a picture clause
gMonth	Text field with a picture clause
gMonthDay	Text field with a picture clause
gDay	Text field with a picture clause

The following legacy types are mapped to the Text Field object:

IDREF

IDREFS

ENTITY

ENTITIES

NMTOKEN

NMTOKENS

NOTATION

Other types are mapped in the following table:

Other	Object type
boolean	Check Box
hexBinary	Static Image
base64Binary	Static Image
anyURI	Text Field

Restricted simple types

New simple types can be derived from other simple types by using XML Schema restrictions. This section describes how these restrictions can be mapped to form designs.

Enumeration facets

An XML schema element or attribute declaration of any base type that declares one or more enumerated values will generate a drop-down list object rather than the default field for the declaration’s base type, as shown by the following example:

<xsd:element name="Colors"> 
    <xsd:complexType> 
        <xsd:simpleContent> 
            <xsd:extension base="xsd:string"> 
                <xsd:enumeration value="red"/> 
                <xsd:enumeration value="green"/> 
                <xsd:enumeration value="blue"/> 
            </xsd:extension> 
        </xsd:simpleContent> 
    </xsd:complexType> 
<xsd:element>

The set of enumerated values will be stored as items for the drop-down list.

Bounds, length, and precision facets

Whenever possible, the restriction facets that control bounds (minInclusive, minExclusive, maxInclusive, and maxExclusive), length (length, minLength, and maxLength), and precision (totalDigits and fractionDigits) are mapped to properties on generated objects. Otherwise, they are used to generate validation scripts. Here are two examples:

The maxLength facet is used to set the maxChars properties on the text value:

<field><value><text maxChars="100"/></value></field>
The fractionDigits facet is used to set the fracDigits property on the decimal value:

<field><value><decimal fracDigits="3"/></value></field>

List and union types

List types allow definition of types whose values are whitespace-separated lists of single values. Elements and attributes that have list types will be mapped to Text Field objects.

Union types are types for which the set of allowed values are a union of two or more other sets of values. The various sets are not necessarily of the same base type. In general, union types will be mapped to Text Field objects. However, in the case where all the sets in the union are of the same type, the mapping will be the same as for any type by using one of those sets (that is, a union of two sets of enumerated values will generate a drop-down list with all values from the union).