If one wanted to process an XML document into a COBOL data structure using XML PARSE, could an XML schema be used to enforce data validation restrictions upon the XML document? QUESTION POSED ON: 28 MAR 2005
QUESTION ANSWERED BY: Tom Ross No, Enterprise COBOL does not do validation of XML documents (yet), it only performs checking for well-formedness. When we first implemented XML PARSE, DTDs were the hot topic, so it is good that we did NOT implement DTD validation; we would have to go back and add XML schema validation anyway. As it is, we are headed in the direction of adding schema validation, but it is not coming real soon.