When working with complex schemas it can be difficult to maintain due to the size. It would be nice to only view the elements that are not referenced.
For example you may have a schema similar to the one below but more complex than this one shown:
The elements Address, Person and Phone are all referenced elements and are also shown in the schema. Wouldn’t it be nice to hide those referenced elements?
Here is how to do it. Right click on the schema in the solution explorer window and open it using the XML (Text) editor as shown below:
Add the following declaration under the schema element
<xs:schema xmlns="http://Reference_Schema.Contact" xmlns:b="http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003" targetNamespace="http://Reference_Schema.Contact" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xs:annotation xmlns:b="http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003">
<xs:appinfo>
<b:schemaInfo root_reference="Clients" displayroot_reference="Clients" >
</b:schemaInfo>
</xs:appinfo>
</xs:annotation>
The two key attributes are root_reference and displayroot_reference. These should be set to the root element of the schema, in this case our sample schema’s root element is called Clients.
The final schema will now look like this below after inserting the above declaration in the schema. Notice the referenced elements are not shown.
Here is the full xsd document below.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>
<xs:schema xmlns="http://Reference_Schema.Contact" xmlns:b="http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003" targetNamespace="http://Reference_Schema.Contact" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<xs:annotation xmlns:b="http://schemas.microsoft.com/BizTalk/2003">
<xs:appinfo>
<b:schemaInfo root_reference="Clients" displayroot_reference="Clients" >
</b:schemaInfo>
</xs:appinfo>
</xs:annotation>
<xs:element name="Clients">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="Contacts">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="Contact">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element ref="Person" />
<xs:element ref="Address" />
<xs:element ref="Phone" />
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name="Address">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="Address1" type="xs:string" />
<xs:element name="Addess2" type="xs:string" />
<xs:element name="Address3" type="xs:string" />
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name="Person">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="FirstName" type="xs:string" />
<xs:element name="Lastname" type="xs:string" />
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
<xs:element name="Phone">
<xs:complexType>
<xs:sequence>
<xs:element name="Home" type="xs:string" />
<xs:element name="Mobile" type="xs:string" />
<xs:element name="Business" type="xs:string" />
</xs:sequence>
</xs:complexType>
</xs:element>
</xs:schema>
Enjoy.