[Also applies to v8]{class="badge positive" title="Also applies to Campaign v8"}

Use data schemas in Campaign data-schemas

Below are some general principles concerning the use of data schemas in Adobe Campaign.

For more on creating and configuring data schemas in Adobe Campaign, refer to this section.

Schema structure schema-structure

The XML document of a data schema must contain the <srcschema> root element with the name and namespace attributes to populate the schema name and its namespace.

<srcSchema name="schema_name" namespace="namespace">
...
</srcSchema>

The point of entry of the schema is its main element. It is easy to identify because it has the same name as the schema, and it should be the child of the root element. The description of the content begins with this element.

In a content management schema, the main element is represented by the following line:

<element name="book" template="ncm:content" xmlChildren="true">

The template attribute entered in the main element lets you extend the schema with generic properties to all content definitions such as name, creation date, author, associated string, etc.

These properties are described in the ncm:content schema.

Data types data-types

Here is an example of a content management schema with the types filled in:

<srcSchema name="book" namespace="cus">
  <element name="book" template="ncm:content" xmlChildren="true">
    <attribute name="title" type="string"/>
    <attribute name="date" type="date"/>
    <attribute name="language" type="string"/>
    <element name="chapter">
      <attribute name="name" type="string"/>
      <element name="page" type="string>
        <attribute name="number" type="short"/>
      </element>
    </element>
  </element>
</element>

Properties properties

Various properties can be used to enrich the <element> and <attribute> elements of the data schema.

The main properties used in content management are as follows:

Here is our example schema with the properties filled in:

<srcSchema name="book" namespace="cus">
  <enumeration name="language" basetype="string" default="eng">
    <value name="fra" label="French"/>
    <value name="eng" label="English"/>
  </enumeration>

  <element name="book" label="Book" desc="Example book" template="ncm:content" xmlChildren="true">
    <attribute name="title" type="string" label="Title" default="'New book'"/>
    <attribute name="date" type="date" default="GetDate()"/>
    <attribute name="language" type="string" label="Language" enum="language"/>
    <element name="chapter" label="Chapter">
      <attribute name="name" type="string" label="Name" desc="Name of chapter"/>
      <element name="page" type="string" label="Page" desc="Page content">
        <attribute name="number" type="short" label="Number" default="CounterValue('numPage')"/>
      </element>
    </element>
  </element>
</srcSchema>

Collection elements collection-elements

A collection is a list of elements with the same name and the same hierarchical level.

In our example, the <chapter> and <page> elements are collection elements. The unbound attribute must therefore be added to the definition of these elements:

<element name="chapter" label="Chapter" unbound="true" ordered="true">

<element name="page" type="string" label="Page" desc="Content of page" unbound="true">

Element referencing element-referencing

Element referencing is used a great deal in content schemas. It enables you to factorize the definition of an <element> element so that it can be referenced on other elements with the same structure.

The ref attribute on the element to be referenced must be completed with the path (XPath) of the reference element.

Example: adding of an Appendix section with the same structure as the <chapter> element of our example schema.

<srcSchema name="book" namespace="cus">
  <element name="section">
    <attribute name="name" type="string" label="Name" desc="Name"/>
    <element name="page" type="string" label="Page" desc="Content of page">
      <attribute name="number" type="short" label="Number" default="CounterValue('numPage')"/>
    </element>

  <element name="book" label="Book" desc="Example book" template="ncm:content" xmlChildren="true">
    <attribute name="title" type="string" label="Title" default="'New book'"/>
    <attribute name="date" type="date" default="GetDate()"/>
    <attribute name="language" type="string" label="Language" enum="language"/>
    <element name="chapter" label="Chapter" ref="section"/>
    <element name="appendix" label="Appendix" ref="section"/>
  </element>
</srcSchema>

The chapter structure is moved to the element with the name “section” outside the main element. The chapter and section reference the “section” element.

Compute string compute-string

A Compute string is an XPath expression used to construct a string representing a content instance.

Here is our example schema with its Compute string:

<srcSchema name="book" namespace="cus">
  <element name="book" label="Book" desc="Example book" template="ncm:content" xmlChildren="true">
    <compute-string expr="@name"/>
    ...
  </element>
</srcSchema>

Editing schemas editing-schemas

The edit field lets you input the XML content of the source schema:

When the source schema is saved, extended schema generation is launched automatically.