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All Group Nodes

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In BizTalk Editor, you can insert an All Group node to contain other nodes that will appear zero or one time, in any order. In XML Schema definition (XSD) language, the All group has more usage limitations than Sequence and Choice groups, which translates to few situations within BizTalk Editor where you will be able to create an All Group node.

To use an All Group node in BizTalk Editor, you need to follow some extra steps: The easiest way to create an All Group node is to change the value of the Group Order Type property of the parent Record node to All. This ensures that all of the subordinate nodes of the Record node are contained within the All Group node. See Group Order Type in the UI guidance and developers API namespace reference.

Another way to use an All Group node in BizTalk Editor begins with inserting a new Record node. After inserting the new Record node, change its Content Type property to ComplexContent. Then you can insert an All Group node as a child of the Record node. This is required because the All Group can only be inserted when inheritance is involved. By specifying that the containing Record node contains complex content, its data type becomes based on the data type xs:anyType, derived by extension.

Note

In BizTalk Editor, the All Group node is represented with the string <All> in the schema tree view. If you set a reference to an All Group node, such as to x, it is represented as <Group:x> in the schema tree view.

XSD representation

An All Group node can be inserted into a Record node, but only if it is the only non-attribute child node of that Record node. The following example shows, in steps, how a new All Group node is represented in the XML Schema definition (XSD) language as an all element as the steps in BizTalk Editor are performed (with nodes named to clarify their identity).

<xs:element name="NewRecord">  
    <xs:complexType />   
</xs:element>

After adding a new record as shown in the preceding XSD fragment, its Content Type property is changed to ComplexContent, resulting in the following XSD modifications.

<xs:element name="NewRecord">  
    <xs:complexType>  
        <xs:complexContent mixed="false">  
             <xs:extension base="xs:anyType" />  
        </xs:complexContent>  
    </xs:complexType>  
</xs:element>

Now the All Group node can be inserted as a child of the new record, as shown in the following XSD fragment.

<xs:element name="NewRecord">  
    <xs:complexType>  
        <xs:complexContent mixed="false">  
            <xs:extension base="xs:anyType">  
                <xs:all />   
             </xs:extension>  
          </xs:complexContent>  
     </xs:complexType>  
</xs:element>

Finally, you can insert appropriate nodes as children of the new All Group node. The following example shows a Record node and a Field Element node inserted as child nodes of the new All Group node.

<xs:element name="NewRecord">  
    <xs:complexType>  
        <xs:complexContent mixed="false">  
            <xs:extension base="xs:anyType">  
                <xs:all>  
                    <xs:element name="RecordChildOfAllGroup">  
                        <xs:complexType />  
                    </xs:element>  
                    <xs:element name="FieldElementChildOfAllGroup" type="xs:string" />  
                </xs:all>  
            </xs:extension>  
        </xs:complexContent>  
    </xs:complexType>  
</xs:element>

See Also