Validate XML against XSD Schema using Java

In this example we will Validate XML against XSD Schema. We use the javax.xml.validation.Validator to check the XML document against the XSD schema. Be careful because the validator is not thread safe. It is the responsibility of the application to make the code thread safe. The validation is successful when the validator.validate() method does not throw an exception.

Project structure

+--src
|   +--main
|       +--java
|           +--com
|               +--memorynotfound
|                   |--ValidateXmlXsd.java
|       +--resources
|           |--schema.xsd
pom.xml

XSD Schema

<xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">

    <xs:element name="course">
        <xs:complexType>
            <xs:all>
                <xs:element type="xs:string" name="name"/>
                <xs:element type="xs:string" name="description"/>
            </xs:all>
            <xs:attribute type="xs:integer" name="id"/>
        </xs:complexType>
    </xs:element>

</xs:schema>

XSD Validator

To validate XML against XSD schema we need to create a schema and a validator. Next we validate the XML against the XSD schema. The validation is successful if the validator.validate() method does not throw an exception.

package com.memorynotfound.xml.xsd;

import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
import javax.xml.XMLConstants;
import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamSource;
import javax.xml.validation.Schema;
import javax.xml.validation.SchemaFactory;
import javax.xml.validation.Validator;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.StringReader;

public class ValidateXmlXsd {

    public static String xml =
            "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" standalone=\"yes\"?>\n" +
            "<course id=\"1-ID\">\n" +
            "    <name>JAX-B</name>\n" +
            "    <description>Validate XML against XSD Schema</description>\n" +
            "</course>";

    public static void main(String... args) {
        try {
            System.out.println("Validate XML against XSD Schema");
            SchemaFactory factory = SchemaFactory.newInstance(XMLConstants.W3C_XML_SCHEMA_NS_URI);
            Schema schema = factory.newSchema(ValidateXmlXsd.class.getResource("/schema.xsd"));
            Validator validator = schema.newValidator();
            validator.validate(new StreamSource(new StringReader(xml)));
            System.out.println("Validation is successful");
        } catch (IOException e) {
            // handle exception while reading source
        } catch (SAXException e) {
            System.out.println("Error when validate XML against XSD Schema");
            System.out.println("Message: " + e.getMessage());
        }
    }

}

Getting the line and column number

If you need to display the line or column number, read this tutorial.

Output

Validate XML against XSD Schema
Error when validate XML against XSD Schema
Message: cvc-datatype-valid.1.2.1: '1-ID' is not a valid value for 'integer'.

References

• Java XML Validation JavaDoc
• Validator JavaDoc
• Schema JavaDoc

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