any

Enables any element from the specified namespace(s) to appear in the containing <sequence> or <choice> element.

<any
  id = ID 
  maxOccurs = (nonNegativeInteger | unbounded) : 1
  minOccurs = nonNegativeInteger : 1 
  namespace = "(##any | ##other) | List of (anyURI | (##targetNamespace |  ##local))) : ##any 
  processContents = (lax | skip | strict) : strict 
  {any attributes with non-schema Namespace…}>
Content: (annotation?)
</any>

Attributes

id

The ID of this element. The id value must be of type ID and be unique within the document containing this element.

Optional.

maxOccurs

The maximum number of times the <any> element can occur on the element. The value can be an integer greater than or equal to zero. To set no limit on the maximum number, use the string "unbounded". Default value is 1.

Optional.

minOccurs

The minimum number of times the <any> element can occur on the element. The value can be an integer greater than or equal to zero. To specify that this <any> group is optional, set this attribute to zero. Default value is 1.

Optional.

namespace

The namespaces containing the elements that can be used. If no namespace is specified, ##any is the default. If the namespace is specified, it must one of the following.

##any	Elements from any namespace can be present.
##other	Elements from any namespace that is not the target namespace of the parent element containing this element can be present.
##local	Elements that are not qualified with a namespace can be present.
##targetNamespace	Elements from the target namespace of the parent element containing this element can be present.
List of {URI references, ##targetNamespace, ##local}	Elements from a space-delimited list of the namespaces can be present. The list can contain the following: URI references of namespaces, ##targetNamespace, and ##local.

Optional.

processContents

An indicator of how an application or XML processor should handle validation of XML documents against the elements specified by this <any> element. If no processContents attribute is specified, the default is strict. If processContents is specified, it must one of the following.

strict	The XML processor must obtain the schema for the required namespaces and validate any element from those namespaces.
lax	The XML processor attempts to obtain the schema for the required namespaces and validate any element from those namespaces; however, if the schema cannot be obtained, no errors will occur.
skip	The XML processor does not attempt to validate any elements from the specified namespaces.

Optional.

Element Information

Example

The following example shows an element declaration for an element that must contain one or more elements from the XHTML namespace with content processing set to lax.

<xs:element name='htmlText'>
  <xs:complexType>
   <xs:sequence>
     <xs:any namespace='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'
          minOccurs='1' maxOccurs='unbounded'
          processContents='lax'/>
   </xs:sequence>
  </xs:complexType>
</xs:element>

See Also

XML Schema Reference (XSD) | XML Schema Elements

For more information, see the W3C XML Schema Part 1: Structures Recommendation at http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/REC-xmlschema-1-20010502/#element-any.