We are developing an application that involves a substantial amount of XML transformations. We do not have any proper input test data per se, only DTD or XSD files. We'd like to generate our test data ourselves from these files. Is there an easy/free way to do that?
Edit
There are apparently no free tools for this, and I agree that OxygenXML is one of the best tools for this.
In Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and later the XML Schema Explorer can create an XML document with some basic sample data:
In recent versions of the free and open source Eclipse IDE you can generate XML documents from DTD and XSD files. Right-click on a given *.dtd or *.xsd file and select "Generate -> XML File...". You can choose which root element to generate and whether optional attributes and elements should be generated.
Of course you can use Eclipse to create and edit your DTD and XSD schema files, too. And you don't need to install any plugins. It is included in the standard distribution.
I think Oxygen (http://www.oxygenxml.com/) does it as well, but that's another commerical product. It's a nice one, though... I'd strongly recommend it for anyone doing a lot of XML work. It comes in a nice Eclipse plugin, too.
I do believe there is a free, fully-featured 30 day trial.
The camprocessor available on Sourceforge.net will do xml test case generation for any XSD. There is a tutorial available to show you how to generate your own test examples - including using content hints to ensure realistic examples, not just random junk ones.
The tutorial is available here: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/29661/XSD%20and%20jCAM%20tutorial.pdf
And more information on the tool - which is using the OASIS Content Assembly Mechanism (CAM) standard to refactor your XSD into a more XSLT friendly structure - can be found from the resource website - http://www.jcam.org.uk
Enjoy, DW
XMLSpy does that for you, although that's not free...
I believe that Liquid Xml Studio does it for you and is free, but I have not personally used it to create test data.
You can use the XML Instance Generator which is part of the Sun/Oracle Multi-Schema Validator.
It's README.txt states:
Sun XML Generator is a Java tool to generate various XML instances from several kinds of schemas. It supports DTD, RELAX Namespace, RELAX Core, TREX, and a subset of W3C XML Schema Part 1. [...]
This is a command-line tool that can generate both valid and invalid instances from schemas. It can be used for generating test cases for XML applications that need to conform to a particular schema.
Download and unpack xmlgen.zip from the msv download page and run the following command to get detailed usage instructions:
java -jar xmlgen.jar -help
The tool appears to be released under a BSD license; the source code is accessible from here
Microsoft has published a "document generator" tool as a sample. This is an article that describes the architecture and operation of the sample app in some detail.
If you just want to run the sample generation tool, click here and install the MSI.
It's free. The source is available. Requires the .NET Framework to run. Works only with XSDs. (not Relax NG or DTD).
Microsoft Office has 'InfoPath', which takes an XSD as an import and lets you quickly and easily define a form-based editor for creating XML files. It has two modes - one where you define the form, and another mode where you create the XML file by filling out the form. I believe it first came with Office 2003, and most people never install it. It shocks me at how much I like it.
XMLBlueprint 7.5 can do the following: - generate sample xml from dtd - generate sample xml from relax ng schema - generate sample xml from xml schema
