Designing XML Schemas for Bioinformatics

Data interchange bioinformatics databases will, in the future, most likely take place using extensible markup language (XML). The document structure will be described by an XML Schema rather than a document type definition (DTD). To ensure flexibility, the XML Schema must incorporate aspects of Object-Oriented Modeling. This impinges on the choice of the data model, which, in turn, is based on the organization of bioinformatics data by biologists. Thus, there is a need for the general bioinformatics community to be aware of the design issues relating to XML Schema. This paper, which is aimed at a general bioinformatics audience, uses examples to describe the differences between a DTD and an XML Schema and indicates how Unified Modeling Language diagrams may be used to incorporate Object-Oriented Modeling in the design of schema.