Vertical XML Schemas

Copyright 2004-1016 by Ronald Bourret

In 2004, for reasons I no longer remember, I became curious about how many publicly available vertical XML Schemas were actually being used. To that end, I spent two evenings poking around the Web with a non-DSL modem (remember those?) looking for schemas that appeared to be active. In that time, I found ~100 schemas that fit my criteria: (a) a date of 2003 or 2004 associated with the schema and (b) apparent backing from a semi-reputable organization.

I conducted my research on five main platforms:

Based on this survey, I guessed that 100 vertical schemas actually being used was a low-end figure.

Based on this minimal research, I guesstimated I had found 1/4-1/2 of all active, publicly available, vertical schemas. I was optimistic because (a) many of the Cover Pages schemas were clearly failures or pet projects and (b) most industry searches didn't turn up more than a few schemas. (I did not include product-specific or privately-used schemas, of which there were certainly thousands.)

As of this writing (2016), it's safe to say that many of these schemas are no longer being used. However, a quick peek at the Web showed a surprising number were still active. And this didn't include just mainline schemas like HL7, DITA, METS, and SVG. It included schemas likely to be known only to people whose light reading consists of trade journals -- schemas like OTA (Open Travel Alliance), PIDX (Petroleum Industry Data Exchange), SportsML, and MISMO (Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization). Maybe the XML revolution happened after all.

The Schemas

NOTE: The links have not been checked since 2004, so many are likely to be out of date, even if the schemas are still being used.

FieldAbbreviationNameMultiple
schemas?
URL
advertisingSPACE/ XMLSpecifications for Publisher & Agency Communications Exchange XMLNhttp://www.idealliance.org/spacexml/
automotiveSTARStandards for Technology in Automotive RetailY?http://www.starstandard.org/
biologyAGAVEArchitecture for Genomic Annotation, Visualization and ExchangeNhttp://www.agavexml.org/
biologyBINDBiomolecular Interaction Network DatabaseNhttp://www.bind.ca/
biologyBioMLBIOpolymer Markup LanguageNhttp://bioinformatics.genomicsolutions.com/BioML.html
biologyBSMLBioinformatic Sequence Markup LanguageNhttp://www.bsml.org/
biologyDDBJ-XMLDNA Data Bank of Japan XMLN?http://xml.nig.ac.jp/index.html
biologyMAGE-MLMicroarray Gene Expression Markup LanguageNhttp://www.mged.org/Workgroups/MAGE/mage.html
biologyMaXMLMouse Annotation XMLNhttp://fantom2.gsc.riken.go.jp/maxml/
biologyNeuroMLNeuroMLNhttp://www.neuroml.org/
biologyRNAMLRNA Markup LanguageNhttp://www-lbit.iro.umontreal.ca/rnaml/
biologySBMLSystems Biology Markup LanguageNhttp://sbml.org/index.psp
biologyvariousDTDs for NCBI markup languagesYhttp://www.ncbi.nih.gov/dtd/
biologyXCBFXML Common Biometric Format Nhttp://www.oasis-open.org/specs/index.php#xcbfv1.1
businessBPEL4WSBusiness Process Execution Language for Web ServicesNhttp://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/ws-bpel/
businessCAMContent Assembly MechanismNhttp://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=cam
businessebXMLElectronic Business using XMLYhttp://www.ebxml.org/specs/index.htm
businessxCBLXML Common Business LanguageNhttp://www.xcbl.org/
chemistryChem eStandardsChem eStandardsNhttp://www.cidx.org/ChemeStandards/overview.asp
chemistryCMLChemistry Markup LanguageNhttp://wwmm.ch.cam.ac.uk/moin/ChemicalMarkupLanguage
documentationATA iSpec 2200Information Standards for Aviation MaintenanceNhttp://www.air-transport.org/news/d.aspx?nid=6711
documentationDITADarwin Information Typing ArchitectureNhttp://xml.coverpages.org/dita.html
documentationDocBookDocBookNhttp://www.docbook.org/
documentationIEEE DTDIEEE Standards DTDNhttp://standards.ieee.org/resources/spasystem/dtd/index.html
documentationXHTMLeXtensible Hypertext Markup LanguageNhttp://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1
educationSCORMSharable Content Object Reference ModelNhttp://www.adlnet.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=scormabt
educationSIF XMLSchools Interoperability Framework XMLNhttp://www.sifinfo.org/specification.asp
financialFinXMLFinXMLY?http://www.finxml.org/
financialFixMLFinancial Information eXchange Markup LanguageNhttp://www.fixprotocol.org/
financialFpMLFinancial products Markup LangaugeY?http://www.fpml.org/
financialIFXInteractive Financial eXchangeN?http://www.ifxforum.org/ifxforum.org/index.cfm
financialMDDLMarket Data Definition LanguageNhttp://www.mddl.org
financialOFXOpen Financial ExchangeNhttp://www.ofx.net/
financialRIXMLResearch Information eXchange Markup LanguageNhttp://www.rixml.org
financialswiftMLSociety for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications Markup LanguageY?http://www.swift.com/
financialXBRLeXtensible Business Reporting LanguageNhttp://xbrl.org/
geneologygdmxmlGenealogical Data Model XMLNhttp://gdmxml.fugal.net/
geneologyGEDXMLGEnealogical Data COMmunications XMLNhttp://www.familysearch.org/GEDCOM/GedXML60.pdf
geneologyGenXMLGeneology XMLNhttp://home.c2i.net/cowe/genxml/index.htm
governmentCAPCommon Alerting ProtocolNhttp://www.oasis-open.org/specs/index.php#capv1.0
governmentDenmarkDanish GovernmentYhttp://rep.oio.dk/, http://isb.oio.dk/info
governmentEMLElection Markup LanguageNhttp://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=election
governmentGermanyGerman GovernmentYhttp://www.osci.de/
governmentHong KongHong Kong GovernmentYhttp://www.xml.gov.hk/
governmentUK GovTalkUK GovernmentYhttp://www.govtalk.gov.uk/schemasstandards/schemalibrary.asp
healthAERSAdverse Events Reporting SystemN?
healthCDISCClinical Data Interchange Standards ConsortiumYhttp://www.cdisc.org/standards/index.html
healthHL7Health Level 7Yhttp://www.hl7.org/
human resourcesHR-XMLHuman Resources XMLYhttp://www.hr-xml.org/channels/projects_main.cfm
insuranceACORD XML for LifeACORD XML for LifeNhttp://www.acord.org/standards/lifexml.aspx
insuranceACORD XML for P & CACORD XML for Property & CasualtyNhttp://www.acord.org/standards/propertyxml.aspx
legalGlobal JXDMGlobal Justice XML Data ModelYhttp://it.ojp.gov/topic.jsp?topic_id=43
manufacturing papiNetPaper Industry NetworkYhttp://www.papinet.org/
manufacturingPSLXPlanning and Scheduling Language on XMLNhttp://www.pslx.org/en/
mathematicsCellMLCell Markup LanguageNhttp://www.cellml.org
mathematicsMathMLMathematics Markup LanguageNhttp://www.w3.org/TR/MathML2/
metadatabibteXMLBibTeX as XMLNhttp://bibtexml.sourceforge.net/
metadataDAML+OILDARPA Agent Markup Language, Ontology Inference LayerNhttp://www.daml.org/
metadataDublin CoreDublin CoreNhttp://dublincore.org/
metadataMARCXMLMAchine Readable CatalogingNhttp://www.loc.gov/standards/marcxml/
metadataMETSMetadata Encoding and Transmission StandardNhttp://www.loc.gov/mets/
metadataMODSXMLMetadata Object Description SchemaNhttp://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/
metadataOWLWeb Ontology LanguageNhttp://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-owl-features-20040210/
metadataRDF/XMLResource Description Framework XMLNhttp://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-syntax-grammar/
metadataTEIText Encoding InitiativeNhttp://www.tei-c.org/
metadataXMIXML Metadata InterchangeNhttp://www.omg.org/technology/documents/formal/xmi.htm
multimediaSMILSychronized Multimedia Integration LanguageNhttp://www.w3.org/TR/smil20
multimediaSVGScalable Vector GraphicsNhttp://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/
natural resourceseFIDSForestry Industry Data StandardsN?http://www.forestryscotland.com/ebusiness_forum/e_working_group.asp?id=1&cache=0.5297125
natural resourcesPIDX RP3901Petroleum Institute Data eXchangeYhttp://committees.api.org/business/pidx/xmlnew.html
natural resourcesXMMLeXploration and Mining Markup LanguageYhttps://www.seegrid.csiro.au/twiki/bin/view/Xmml/WebHome
newsNewsMLNews Markup LanguageNhttp://www.newsml.org/pages/index.php
newsNITFNews Industry Text FormatNhttp://www.nitf.org/
newsPRISM AggregatorPublishing Requirements for Industry Standard Metadata, Aggregator DTDNhttp://www.prismstandard.org/
pharmaceuticalscTOCInvestigational New Drug Application Cumulative Table of ContentsN?
pharmaceuticalseCTDElectronic Common Technical DocumentNhttp://www.ich.org/MediaServer.jser?@_ID=563&@_MODE=GLB
pharmaceuticalsPIMProduct Information ManagementNhttp://www.emea.eu.int ?
publishingAtomAtomNhttp://xml.coverpages.org/atom.html
publishingICEInformation and Content ExchangeNhttp://www.icestandard.org/
publishingJDFJob Definition SpecificationNhttp://www.cip4.org/
publishingPROSE/XMLPROSE/XMLNhttp://www.idealliance.org/prosexml/
publishingRSSReally Simple SyndicationNhttp://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
query languagesXSLTXSL TransformationsNhttp://www.w3.org/TR/xslt
real estateMISMOMortgage Industry Standards Maintenance OrganizationYhttp://www.mismo.org/mismo/
real estateRETSReal Estate Transaction StandardYhttp://www.rets.org/docs/
recreationCaxton XMLCaxton XML (chess)Nhttp://www.chesscity.com/Caxton/schema.htm
recreationCPXeCommon Picture eXchange environmentNhttp://www.i3a.org/i_cpxe.html
recreationMusicXMLMusicXMLNhttp://www.recordare.com/xml.html
recreationRecipeMLRecipe Markup LanguageNhttp://www.formatdata.com/recipeml/
recreationSportsMLSports Markup LanguageNhttp://www.sportsml.com/
schemasXML SchemasXML SchemasNhttp://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-1/
scienceCDF MLCommon Data Format XMLNhttp://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/cdf/cdf_home.html
securityANMLAdvisory and Notification Markup LanguageNhttp://www.opensec.org/anml/
securityAVDLApplication Vulnerability Description LanguageNhttp://www.oasis-open.org/specs/index.php#avdlv1.0
securitySAMLSecurity Assertion Markup LanguageNhttp://www.oasis-open.org/specs/index.php#samlv1.1
securityXACMLExtensible Access Control Markup LanguageNhttp://www.oasis-open.org/specs/index.php#xacmlv1.0
softwareDSMLDirectory Services Markup LanguageNhttp://www.oasis-open.org/specs/index.php#dsmlv2
softwareMicrosoft Office 2003WordprocessingML, SpreadsheetML, FormTemplate XML, DataDiagramingML Yhttp://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=fe118952-3547-420a-a412-00a2662442d9&DisplayLang=en
softwareOpen Office XMLOpen Office XMLN?http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=office
softwareP3PPlatform for Privacy PreferencesNhttp://www.w3.org/TR/P3P/
softwareSPMLService Provisioning Markup LanaguageNhttp://www.oasis-open.org/specs/index.php#spmlv1.0
softwareSyncMLSynchronization Markup LanguageNhttp://www.openmobilealliance.org/tech/affiliates/syncml/syncmlindex.html
softwareWSDLWeb Services Description LanguageNhttp://www.w3.org/TR/wsdl
speechSSMLSpeech Synthesis Markup LanguageNhttp://www.w3.org/TR/speech-synthesis/
speechVoiceXMLVoice eXtensible Markup LanguageNhttp://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/
taxesInland RevenueUK Inland RevenueYhttp://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/ebu/sa-techpack-04/
taxesIRSUS Internal Revenue ServiceYhttp://www.irs.gov/taxpros/providers/article/0,,id=101145,00.html
taxesTax XMLFederation of Tax AdministratorsYhttp://www.taxadmin.org/fta/edi/xmldev.html
travelOTAOpen Travel AllianceYhttp://www.opentravel.org/online_schema.cfm