XML Modeling

Well I've been trying to teach myself XML over the last few weeks. Overall I don't see it as that difficult. I've worked with XML data in the past but usually through various interpreters and other applications. This has been my first 'experiment' with developing and XML Schema.

Modeling XML is a pretty straight forward idea, and pretty simple... now doing it right.... So anyways I initially started out by buying a book, after reviewing it from the library I picked up XML By Example by Benoit Marchal for <$5 on Amazon. Then without touching the computer I first read the first 4 chapters and briefly skimmed the rest of the book. I stopped after Chapter 4 since it is on XML Models. So at that point I began my first model... well I think I bit off more than I could chew. I went for designing a model to fit the entire set of formats found in the H*Wind project. Well like I said, much more then I could chew....

So I went back and decided just to model a single 'type' I chose the Storm Center/Forecast type since it also coincides with another project we are starting. Well I first went through the data file and decided which fields we needed for our purposes. I then defined my 'variables' or elements. I then started putting things together. Next I tried to build a sample data file based on the schema... what I found... my model sucked. So back to the modeling stage.... well I can see why this is not so simple now...

Well so I think I'll give it one more modeling try and then I might start looking for an app to reverse model an existing XML file.... I think my main issue may just be in the abstractness of modeling without data.