I've run into a problem that is somewhat annoying and is probably a common occurrence for most users. I changed my schema slightly so that one of the elements in my existing documents would be invalid. I opened the document in the editor and, of course, it identified those elements as invalid. What it didn't do is give me the correct choices for which elements to insert.
For example, suppose I had an address element type which was very flexible and now I've constrained the type to enforce at least a city and state. So, if I had the content <address><city>Berkeley</city></address> I now want the option when I select the city element to give me the valid sibling choice of the 'state' element. Unfortunately, as the document is invalid, every possible child of address is given. Since I know the schema, I know which one to insert. If I was the average author, this might not be true. Thus, the editor fails to help me "do the right thing". I realize that the PSVI is totally useless when it comes to this kind of support as once the element is invalid you lose type information for the children. It would seem that, within reason, the editor should make a "best-effort" to give the correct options. There is probably some kind of attrition point where the return is minimal or the options available won't make anymore sense than what is currently implemented. Basically, being able to handle partially valid documents is going to be a success factor for content management. For example, suppose you are a publisher and you receive XML content from your authors. You know, on a regular basis, you are going to receive close-but-invalid content from your authors. Refusal of the content isn't always the best option. At least you need to notify the author something like: "you forgot the 'state' tag in your 'address' element." Alex Milowski FAX: (707) 598-7649 alex at milowski.com "The excellence of grammar as a guide is proportional to the paucity of the inflexions, i.e. to the degree of analysis effected by the language considered." Bertrand Russell in a footnote of Principles of Mathematics
