XMLValidate Task

XMLValidate

Description

This task checks that XML files are valid (or only well formed). The task uses the SAX2 parser implementation provided by JAXP by default (probably the one that is used by Ant itself), but one can specify any SAX1/2 parser if needed.

This task supports the use of nested

<xmlcatalog> elements

<dtd> elements which are used to resolve DTDs and entities

<attribute> elements which are used to set features on the parser. These can be any number of http://xml.org/sax/features/ or other features that your parser may support.

Parameters

Attribute	Description	Required
file	the file(s) you want to check. (optionally can use an embedded fileset)	No
lenient	if true, only check the XML document is well formed (ignored if the specified parser is a SAX1 parser)	No
classname	the parser to use.	No
classpathref	where to find the parser class. Optionally can use an embedded `<classpath>` element.	No
failonerror	fails on a error if set to true (defaults to true).	No
warn	log parser warn events.	No

Nested Elements

dtd

<dtd> is used to specify different locations for DTD resolution.

Attribute	Description	Required
publicId	Public ID of the DTD to resolve	Yes
location	Location of the DTD to use, which can be a file, a resource, or a URL	Yes

xmlcatalog

The <xmlcatalog> element is used to perform entity resolution.

attribute

The <attribute> element is used to set SAX Parser features. There can be any number of attributes set, as defined here: http://xml.org/sax/features/ A feature essentialy changes the mode of the parser.

Attribute	Description	Required
name	The name of the feature	Yes
value	The boolean value of the feature	Yes

Examples

<xmlvalidate file="toto.xml"/>

Validate toto.xml

<xmlvalidate failonerror="no" lenient="yes" warn="yes"
             classname="org.apache.xerces.parsers.SAXParser">
             classpath="lib/xerces.jar">
  <fileset dir="src" includes="style/*.xsl"/>
</xmlvalidate>

Validate all .xsl files in src/style, but only warn if there is an error, rather than halt the build.


<xmlvalidate file="struts-config.xml" warn="false">
  <dtd publicId="-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Struts Configuration 1.0//EN"
       location="struts-config_1_0.dtd"/>
</xmlvalidate>

Validate a struts configuration, using a local copy of the DTD.

 
<xmlvalidate failonerror="no">
  <fileset dir="${project.dir}" includes="**/*.xml"/>
  <xmlcatalog refid="mycatalog"/>
</xmlvalidate>

Scan all XML files in the project, using a predefined catalog to map URIs to local files.

<xmlvalidate failonerror="no">
  <fileset dir="${project.dir}" includes="**/*.xml"/>
  <xmlcatalog>
       <dtd
         publicId="-//ArielPartners//DTD XML Article V1.0//EN"
         location="com/arielpartners/knowledgebase/dtd/article.dtd"/>
  </xmlcatalog>
</xmlvalidate>

Scan all XML files in the project, using the catalog defined inline.

<xmlvalidate failonerror="yes" lenient="no" warn="yes">
  <fileset dir="xml" includes="**/*.xml"/>
  <attribute name="http://xml.org/sax/features/validation" value="true"/>
  <attribute name="http://apache.org/xml/features/validation/schema"  value="true"/>
</xmlvalidate>

Validate all .xml files in xml directory with the parser configured to perform schema validation. Note: The parser must support the

http://apache.org/xml/features/validation/schema

feature.