Generating W3C Schema documentation

Generated Schema documentation is a great way to get a quick overview about a Schema you don't know and also to provide additional documentation if you give your Schema to someone else. XML ValidatorBuddy can produce informative and pretty HTML based Schema documentation for any W3C Schema just with a few clicks in seconds:

output schema documentation


Documentation for single Schema files

Just select any number of W3C Schema files with the .xsd file extension in the Windows File Explorer. Use the TortoiseXML right-click menu and the "Generate Schema documentation" command to instantly generate the HTML Schema documentation for all selected schema files:

schema documentation file explorer

For each Schema file the generated HTML documentation is written to the same folder replacing the .xsd file extension with ".html".

Documentation for folders containing Schema files

To generate Schema documentation for all Schema files in a folder and its sub-folders select a folder in Windows File Explorer and open the context menu with a right-button click. Then select the “Generate Schema documentation” command from the TortoiseXML menu in the same way as you do it for files. The command will notice that only a single folder is selected and offers now a dialog where you can choose if you want to write the generated documentation HTML next to each schema found or in a separate folder:

folder configuration

The advantage of the separate folder is that all generated documentation files are afterwards at one place. You could easily add them to a ZIP archive and send them by email for example. The advantage of saving the files next to the schema is that you have the documentation at the same location as the schema. Maybe easier if you like to keep the documentation for later reference.

During the generation the hourglass mouse cursor is shown and after the process has finished a message box is displayed to tell you that all schemas are now documented.