Complex types and XSDs

Answer 1

You need to define a complexType with a simpleContent:

    <xs:element name="AnElement">
      <xs:complexType>
        <xs:simpleContent>
          <xs:extension base="xs:int">
            <xs:attribute name="ID" type="xs:string" />
          </xs:extension>
        </xs:simpleContent>
      </xs:complexType>
    </xs:element>

That should do the trick. And I'm afraid that's the only way to achieve this. Is it really so bad??

UPDATE:
After your update, this is the XSD you'll need:

<xs:schema id="TheParentNode" xmlns="" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"&gt;
  <xs:element name="TheParentNode">
    <xs:complexType>
      <xs:sequence>
        <xs:element name="AnElement">
          <xs:complexType>
            <xs:simpleContent>
              <xs:extension base="xs:int">
                <xs:attribute name="ID" type="xs:string" />
              </xs:extension>
            </xs:simpleContent>
          </xs:complexType>
        </xs:element>
      </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>
  </xs:element>
</xs:schema>

You are aware I hope that if you have the XML file open in Visual Studio, you can go to the "XML" menu and pick "Create schema" from it? That does give you a good start usually for your XSD files.

Marc

Answer 2

How about trying to set up the restriction option with regular express value? restriction and pattern xsd tags

 <xs:element name="AnElement">
     <xs:simpleType>
        <xs:restriction base="xs:integer">
        </xs:restriction>
     </xs:simpleType>
 </xs:element>

This means it allows only to have integers as zero or more digit.

I hope it helps.

Tiger.