Get started with schemas about-schema-reference

What is a schema what-is-a-schema

This chapter describes how to configure extension schemas in order to extend the conceptual data model of the Adobe Campaign database.

For a better understanding of Campaign built-in tables and their interaction, refer to the Campaign Classic data model.

In Adobe Campaign, the physical and logical structure of the data carried in the application is described in XML. A schema is an XML document associated with a database table. It defines data structure and describes the SQL definition of the table:

  • The name of the table
  • Fields
  • Indexes
  • Links with other tables

It also describes the XML structure used to store data:

  • Elements and attributes
  • Hierarchy of elements
  • Element and attribute types
  • Default values
  • Labels, descriptions, and other properties.

Schemas enable you to define an entity in the database. There is a schema for each entity.

The following illustration shows the location of schemas in the Adobe Campaign data system:

Syntax of schemas syntax-of-schemas

The root element of the schema is <srcschema>. It contains the <element> and <attribute> sub-elements.

The first <element> sub-element coincides with the root of the entity.

<srcSchema name="recipient" namespace="cus">
  <element name="recipient">
    <attribute name="lastName"/>
    <attribute name="email"/>
    <element name="location">
      <attribute name="city"/>
   </element>
  </element>
</srcSchema>
NOTE
The root element of the entity has the same name as the schema.

The <element> tags define the names of entity elements. <attribute> tags of the schema define the names of the attributes in the <element> tags which they have been linked to.

Identification of a schema identification-of-a-schema

A data schema is identified by its name and its namespace.

A namespace lets you group a set of schemas by area of interest. For example, the cus namespace is used for customer-specific configuration (customers).

The identification key of a schema is a string built using the namespace and the name separated by a colon; for example: cus:recipient.

IMPORTANT
The name of the namespace must be concise and must contain only authorized characters in accordance with XML naming rules.
Identifiers must not begin with numeric characters.
The following namespaces are reserved for descriptions of the system entities required for the operation of the Adobe Campaign application and must not be used: xtk, nl, nms, ncm, temp, ncl, crm, xxl.
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