Adding global attributes

A global attribute is an attribute that can be recognized anywhere in a document. Once declared, a global attribute can be referenced in one or more declarations using an attribute reference.

The following instructions were written for the Resource perspective, but they will also work in many other perspectives.

To add a global attribute, follow these steps:

  1. Open your XML schema in the XML schema editor.
  2. In the Outline view, select your schema. The entire schema and its contents should be displayed in the Graph view.
  3. In the Graph view, right click in the Attributes section and click Add Global Attribute.
  4. In the Properties view, type the attribute Name.
  5. Click the More button next to the Type field to launch the Set Types dialog.
  6. Select the type you want in the type list, then click OK. The Set Type dialog lists all built-in and user-defined types currently available. You can change the Scope of the list by selecting one of the following options:
    • Workspace. Lists all of the types available in your workspace.
    • Enclosing Project. Lists all of the types available in the project that contains your file.
    • (Default) Current Resource. List all of the types available in your current file.
  7. Click the Documentation tab if you want to provide any information about this global attribute. The Documentation page is used for human readable material, such as a description, and the App Info page can be used to provide information for applications.