A Reusable Software Component for Integrated Syntax and Semantic Validation for Services Computing

Extensible Markup Language (XML) syntax and semantic validations are critical to the correct service transaction specification and service integration based on the existing distributed heterogeneous computing services. However, the current Schematron design and implementation based on Extensible Style sheet Language Transformations (XSLT) have limitations in terms of validation correctness and support for system integration. We propose an algorithm that integrates syntactic and semantic validations in order to overcome the aforementioned limitations. The syntactic validation is based on DTD and XSD and the semantic validation is based on the Schematron. The solution is illustrated by several use cases. Our contributions include combining syntax and semantic validations, designing and implementing a reusable software component to implement this integrated validation process, and supporting invoking this integrated validation through the more flexible observer pattern.