XML Invoices

[FuZion]

This is a side thought on my other post regarding the invoicing system:

If I do write a program that saves invoices in XML format, I will need some sort of common structure to these invoices. Is there a way outside of my head that I can define this structure, say if a third party application was developed? I am aware of things like XSD, but only in terms of SOAP. What would my options be here? And another side thought: if my invoice format changed sometime down the road (and thus my XML format), how would I ensure that my program/XSD(or other format file) is compatible with both versions?

Thanks!

FuZion

[oesxyl]

Originally Posted by FuZion

This is a side thought on my other post regarding the invoicing system:

If I do write a program that saves invoices in XML format, I will need some sort of common structure to these invoices. Is there a way outside of my head that I can define this structure, say if a third party application was developed? I am aware of things like XSD, but only in terms of SOAP.

xsd is a general schema specification, soap use xsd but you can use any other format.

What would my options be here?

xsd as you said but I recommand relaxng( compact). Read this:

http://relaxng.org/compact-tutorial-20030326.html

In my opinion relaxng is more flexible and easy to read/understand and once you have a schema you can convert it from one format to another using tools like trang.

http://relaxng.org/#conversion

the only limitation, for trang, is that you can't convert from xsd to other formats.
trang have the avantage that once you have build a xml file you can extract a schema from it.

And another side thought: if my invoice format changed sometime down the road (and thus my XML format), how would I ensure that my program/XSD(or other format file) is compatible with both versions?

compare somehow schema for both version and if older schema is included in newer one there are compatible.

best regards