<any> doesn't work in XSD?

Question

I am trying to create an xml schema (xsd) to validate an xml file.

<a>
    <b>
        <c>...</c>
        <d>...</d>
    </b>
    <b>
        <c>...</c>
        <e>...</e>
            <d>...</d>
    </b>
<a>

1 a-element. Several b elements that have some content.

I want to check that a is present in the file, and 1 or more cases of b. I am not interested in knowing what is inside b.

So here is what I tried:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" elementFormDefault="qualified" attributeFormDefault="unqualified">
    <xs:element name="a">
        <xs:complexType>
            <xs:sequence>
                <xs:element name="b" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
            </xs:sequence>
        </xs:complexType>
    </xs:element>
    <xs:element name="b">
        <xs:complexType>
            <xs:sequence>
                <xs:any minOccurs="1"/>
            </xs:sequence>
        </xs:complexType>
    </xs:element>
</xs:schema>

I was hoping that any element would do the magic trick, but it is not. What am I doing wrong?

edit XmlSpy gives me this error: The 'c' element is not defined in DTD / Schema.

Answer 1

You do not need extra “b” in the schema, I think what you are looking for:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" elementFormDefault="qualified" attributeFormDefault="unqualified">
  <xs:element name="a">
    <xs:complexType>
      <xs:sequence>
        <xs:element name="b" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="unbounded">
          <xs:complexType>
            <xs:sequence>
              <xs:any maxOccurs="unbounded" minOccurs="1" processContents="lax"/>
            </xs:sequence>
          </xs:complexType>
        </xs:element>
      </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>
  </xs:element>
</xs:schema>

, <a> node, <b> s

: , - !

: !

Answer 2

, . , , - , , .

, , :

<xs:any minOccurs="1" processContents="lax"/>

"skip", "lax", .

. W3C.