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XML Schema Designer workspace views

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Applies to: yesVisual Studio noVisual Studio for Mac

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

The XML Schema Designer (XSD Designer) is a graphical tool that helps you explore your XML schemas. In addition to the XML Schema Explorer, which allows you to browse and navigate the XML Schema tree and perform searches, the XSD Designer provides three views where you can explore your XSD schema in more detail.

  • The Start View is the launching point for the XSD Designer; from the Start View, you can navigate to other views of the XSD Designer and see the details of your schema set.
  • The Graph View enables you to see an overview of a schema set and the relationships between the schema nodes.
  • The Content Model View provides a graphical representation of the details of local and global schema nodes, including simple and complex types, elements, groups, attributes, and attribute groups.

To start exploring the nodes you're interested in, you must add them to the workspace. The workspace is shared between all the views.

Add nodes to the workspace

You can add nodes to the workspace in the following ways:

  • In the "Schema Set Details" section of the Start View, click the add link next to the global node type.

  • Drag and drop global nodes, file nodes, and namespace nodes from the XML Schema Explorer onto any of the three views. For more information, see the "Dragging and Dropping Nodes" section in XML Schema Explorer.

  • Use the context (right-click) menu in the XML Schema Explorer. For more information, see Context menus.

  • Perform a search in the XSD Explorer and click the Add highlighted nodes to Workspace button on the summary results pane. For more information, see Searching the schema set.

Switch views

To switch views, use one of the following:

  • The XSD Designer toolbar.

  • The context (right-click) menus of the Content Model View and the Graph View.

  • The watermarks on the Start View page or the watermark on the blank Content Model View or the Graph View.

  • Hotkeys: Ctrl+1 for the Start View, Ctrl+2 for the Graph View, and Ctrl+3 for the Content Model View.