debating schemas...please chime in ;-)

[Amal_Elaine]

In my office we are having an interesting debate on exactly what to put inside our schemas.  In the true definition, the schema represents all fields on a form, right?  So in its pure sense, we should have a schema for every form, with every field in the form represented in the schema.

A schema is also necessary for workbench orchestrations so that if you need to refer to a field, you can easily drill down to the field value in your process.  So along comes a developer that states that if you have a form that has a very simple back end process (like filing the form to the file system once it's submitted), then you don't really need a schema on the form at all, because the orchestration does not need to pull any field values.

Then there's the java developer that thinks you should only expose fields to a process that are required for the orchestration to run.  So if a form contains 10 fields, but only 2 are needed in the orchestration, then only those two should be represented by the schema.

Then there's the data purist that wants a schema for everything...

We haven't formed a definitive approach yet.  Just wondering what decisions others have made regarding this...

Thanks,
Elaine

[Former Community Member]

The schema definition also defines relationships and structure to the data file. The Process designer does not need a schema to get at the information (although it does make it easier).If there is not one present then he/she must know the structure of the data to get at specific data nodes (or use search facilities in XPath to find the nodes). In most cases organizations (being entire companies or departments) define a single schema for all of there data and a form represents a segment of that schema.

Hope this helps

Paul

[Michael_Eisenm1]

multiple schemas are often used for related data - that can be grouped together -

Can a Live Cycle  PDF form use multiple schemas or do all of the form fileds need to be described in a single schema ?

[Former Community Member]

Single schema - but a single schema can include and reference other schemas and that is supported.

Paul

[ASehnjmhgnbydfb]

Hi Elaine,

I wonder: How do you make your custom schemas available to co-workers/outsiders that dont share access to a commonly used server (I guess that is how you store and access files at your work place)?

When I want to share my custom metadata schema with someone that works with me on a project but does not have access to my server, then how can you convey the schemas to them?

If you have an answer, pls consider replying to my thread here:

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1263474

Thx!