Definition of code contents

[evermanm at tsainc.com]

XML is advertised as a way to define (or "mark up") your data to form 
meaningful documents or messages.  While the DTD or XML schemas work well 
to define the marking (or tagging) of data, it seems they to do little to 
define what the content of the data means.

For example, the data between a <NAME> start tag and a </NAME> end tag is 
presumed to be a character string containing a name.  The data between an 
<AMOUNT> start tag and an </AMOUNT> end tag is probably a string of 
numeric characters representing an amount.  However, what does the data 
between a <MARITALSTATUS> start tag and an </MARITALSTATUS> end tag mean. 
It can be assumed that the data indicates something about the person's 
marital status but what do the codes used in the data mean?  Maybe 0 means 
"single", 1 means "married", 2 means "divorced", etc.

How can the codes that are used in such cases be indicated in the DTD or 
schema?

Mark Everman
Lead System Engineer
ACI Worldwide, Inc.
(402)390-7756


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