This chapter presents the concepts necessary for understanding the XML binding capabilities of HydraExpress and using them effectively.

HydraExpress’s XML binding feature set consists of a code generator and a data binding framework. The code generator is a command-line application that reads an XML Schema document and generates C++ constructs that represent the supplied schema. Each complex type definition in the schema corresponds to a C++ class. HydraExpress creates HTML reference documentation for the generated classes and creates a sample application.

The data binding framework includes utility classes for reading and writing XML, and a set of classes that correspond to primitive types defined by the XML Schema specification.

“XML Binding Basics” introduces the concept of XML data binding. “XML Schema” describes the XML Schema language and shows how HydraExpress uses the schema language to create a binding. “Validation” describes validation and the support HydraExpress offers for validating XML documents.

If you are using HydraExpress to create Web services or to build and deploy an entire business process, the code generation that creates the XML binding of your Schema-described data occurs seamlessly behind the scenes.