Data Format Description Language (DFDL) v1.0 Specification
OGF Proposed Recommendation GFD-P-R.174, January 31, 2011
One or more dfdl:defineFormat annotation elements can appear within the annotation children of the xs:schema element. The dfdl:defineFormat elements may only appear as annotation children of the xs:schema element.
The order of their appearance does not matter, nor does their position relative to other non-annotation children of the xs:schema.
Each dfdl:defineFormat has a required name attribute.
The construct creates a named data format definition. The value of the name attribute is of XML type NCName. The format name will become a member of the schema’s target namespace. These names must be unique within the namespace.
If multiple format definitions have the same 'name' attribute, in the same namespace, then it is a schema definition error.
<xs:schema ...>
<xs:annotation>
<xs:appinfo source="http://www.ogf.org/dfdl/">
<dfdl:defineFormat name="myConfig" >
<dfdl:format representation="text"
ref="textSpecialFormat1" />
</dfdl:defineFormat>
</xs:appinfo>
</xs:annotation>
...
</xs:schema>
A dfdl:defineFormat serves only to supply a named definition for a format for reuse from other places. It does not cause any use of the representation properties it contains to describe any actual data.
A dfdl:defineFormat declaration can inherit from another named format definition by use of the ref attribute of the dfdl:format annotation. This allows a single-inheritance hierarchy that reuses definitions. When one definition extends another in this way, any property definitions contained in its direct elements override those in any inherited definition.
Conceptually, the ‘ref’ inheritance chains can be flattened and removed by copying all inherited property bindings and then superseding those for which there is a local binding. Throughout this document we will assume inheritance is fully flattened. That is, all ‘ref’ inheritance is first removed by flattening before any other examination of properties occurs.
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