User manual

Reverse engineering an XSD, a DTD or an XDR file
208 PowerDesigner
Reverse engineering an XSD, a DTD or an XDR
file
PowerDesigner allows you to reverse engineer an XML Schema Definition
file, a Document Type Definition file or an XML-Data Reduced file to create
or update an XML model.
What is reverse engineering?
Reverse engineering is the process of examining and recovering data or
source code from a file that is then used to build or update an XML model.
You can reverse engineer objects to a new model, or to an existing model.
When you reverse engineer an object which already exists in a model, you
use an object comparison box to choose either to replace or to keep the
existing object in the model.
Parsing
PowerDesigner uses a parser software for XML reverse engineering,
developed by the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org/).
Why reverse engineer an XSD, a DTD or an XDR file?
You can reverse engineer an XSD, a DTD or a XDR file for different
reasons:
♦ To have a global view of the XSD, DTD or XDR file through a diagram
♦ To check, delete or improve the XSD, DTD or XDR file through the
graphic interface
How to reverse engineer an XSD, a DTD or an XDR file?
You can define options and target models when reverse engineering an XSD,
a DTD or an XDR file.