XML schema

The Zthes abstract model can be represented in XML: a single Zthes document consists of a <Zthes> element, wrapping a sequence of <term> elements, each of which represents a single thesaurus term composed of the elements described in the abstract model.

The Zthes XML format, version 1.0, is here described. Despite some additions, it remains upwards compatible with the old Zthes XML DTD, of which the last released version was version 0.5.

The format is described using four different constraint languages: these four schemas are entirely equivalent and may be used interchangeably depending on what tools are available:

• Zthes 1.0 XML Schema and the accompanying Dublin-Core element subschema
• Zthes 1.0 DTD
• Zthes 1.0 Relax NG (compact syntax)
• Zthes 1.0 Relax NG (XML syntax)

These schemas all validate each of the following three sample Zthes-in-XML documents:

• The sample document that was provided along with version 0.5 This demonstrates the backwards compatibility of the new schema.
• A document describing ``zoology'', provided by Synapse (now Factiva Taxonomy, which originally conformed to their in-house Zthes extensions, but is here modified to express the same semantics using the official Zthes 1.0 schema.
• A small section of the classification of dinosaurs, illustrating inter-term relationships.