Java Reference
In-Depth Information
Common Schema Types
Problem
You want to define some typical regular expression type constraints for use in your schema
and you don't want to reinvent the wheel.
Solution
Try one of the following commonly used regular expressions. While regular expression usage
can vary from platform to platform, these have all been tested with Java, and will work on
validation of a SOAP payload.
Person's name
This type would be used for two separate elements for first name and last name. Names must
be at least 2 characters and no more than 30 characters; must consist of alphabetic characters;
and may contain hyphens, single quotes, periods and spaces. Yes, I do know someone whose
legal name contains a “.” (hi, J.!). And, I have a cousin with the legal name “M'Lee”:
<xs:element name="name">
<xs:simpleType>
<xs:restriction base="xs:string">
<xs:minLength value="2" />
<xs:maxLength value="30" />
<xs:pattern value="[A-Za-z\-. ']{2,30}" />
</xs:restriction>
</xs:simpleType>
</xs:element>
This is not necessarily the best way to restrict a name, but at least it's something to work with.
The airline industry does not allow for any special characters, including the very common hy-
phen, for example. Just do what works for you.
U.S. phone number
This handles the common hyphenated field separation as well as using dots or spaces for field
separators:
<xs:element name="usPhone">
<xs:simpleType>
<xs:restriction base="xs:string">
<xs:pattern value="\(?\d{3}\)?[ \-\.]?\d{3}[ \-\.]?\d{4}" />
<xs:minLength value="10" />
