Schema management

1. An article of manufacture embodied as one of a computer readable storage device and hardware logic including program logic for managing schemas, wherein the program logic causes operations to be performed, the operations comprising:

registering a schema and one or more associated schema documents;

automatically generating a schema information document based on the schema and the one or more associated schema documents, wherein the schema information document formalizes and records meta-information of the schema, wherein the meta-information of the schema includes identification of a primary schema document, identification of other associated schema documents, and how the primary and the other schema documents are related to each other, wherein the schema and the one or more schema documents are stored by:

when a copy of the schema document has already been stored, discarding the schema document, wherein it is determined that the copy of the schema document has already been stored by determining that the schema document to be stored and a schema document that has already been stored have a same target namespace, a same schema location, and same content; and

when the schema document to be stored and a schema document that has already been stored have a same target namespace, a same schema location, and different content, storing the schema document with a version identifier; and

processing a request to be performed on at least one of the schema and an associated schema document using the schema information document.

2. The article of manufacture of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:

storing an identifier for the schema, wherein the identifier includes a three-part composite key and a unique name, wherein the three-part composite key includes a target namespace and a schema location; and

storing identifiers for each of the one or more associated schema documents, wherein each identifier includes a three-part composite key.

3. The article of manufacture of claim 1 , wherein the request comprises deregistering the schema according to deregister rules associated with the schema when the schema is registered.

4. The article of manufacture of claim 1 , wherein the request comprises lookup of a schema and wherein the operations further comprise:

when there is one matching schema, returning the matching schema;

when there are multiple matching schemas, applying a filter to identify one matching schema;

when there is no matching schema, applying at least one of a user-defined technique and a system defined technique to find a matching schema; and

wherein information in the schema information document is used to locate associated schema documents when the schema has been identified.

5. The article of manufacture of claim 1 , wherein the request comprises replacement of at least one of the schema and one of the schema documents and wherein the operations further comprise:

replacing the schema if a new schema is backward compatible; and

replacing one of the schema documents if a new schema document is backward compatible.

6. The article of manufacture of claim 1 , wherein the request comprises access of at least one of the schema and one of the schema documents and wherein access is granted based on an access privilege associated with a user and the schema.

7. An article of manufacture embodied as one of a computer readable storage device and hardware logic including program logic for managing schemas, wherein the program logic causes operations to be performed, the operations comprising:

registering a schema and one or more associated schema documents;

storing an identifier for the schema, wherein the identifier includes a three-part composite key and a unique name, wherein the three-part composite key includes a target namespace and a schema location, wherein at least one part of the three-part composite key includes a version identifier that is independent of a primary schema document, wherein versioning of the schema is capable of being independent of versioning of the associated schema documents;

storing identifiers for each of the one or more associated schema documents, wherein each identifier includes an associated three-part composite key;

automatically generating a schema information document based on the schema and the one or more associated schema documents, wherein the schema information document formalizes and records meta-information of the schema, wherein the meta-information of the schema includes identification of a primary schema document, identification of other associated schema documents, and how the primary and the other schema documents are related to each other; and

processing a request to be performed on at least one of the schema and an associated schema document using the schema information document.

8. A system for managing schemas, comprising:

means for registering a schema and one or more associated schema documents;

means for automatically generating a schema information document based on the schema and the one or more associated schema documents, wherein the schema information document formalizes and records meta-information of the schema, wherein the meta-information of the schema includes identification of a primary schema document, identification of other associated schema documents, and how the primary and the other schema documents are related to each other, wherein the schema and the one or more schema documents are stored by:

when a copy of the schema document has already been stored, discarding the schema document, wherein it is determined that the copy of the schema document has already been stored by determining that the schema document to be stored and a schema document that has already been stored have a same target namespace, a same schema location, and same content; and

when the schema document to be stored and a schema document that has already been stored have a same target namespace, a same schema location, and different content, storing the schema document with a version identifier; and

means for processing a request to be performed on at least one of the schema and an associated schema document using the schema information document.

9. The system of claim 8 , further comprising:

means for storing an identifier for the schema, wherein the identifier includes a three-part composite key and a unique name, wherein the three-part composite key includes a target namespace and a schema location; and

means for storing identifiers for each of the one or more associated schema documents, wherein each identifier includes a three-part composite key.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the request comprises deregistering the schema according to deregister rules associated with the schema when the schema is registered.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the request comprises lookup of a schema and further comprising:

means for, when there is one matching schema, returning the matching schema;

means for, when there are multiple matching schemas, applying a filter to identify one matching schema;

means for, when there is no matching schema, applying at least one of a user-defined technique and a system defined technique to find a matching schema; and

means for, wherein information in the schema information document is used to locate associated schema documents when the schema has been identified.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein the request comprises replacement of at least one of the schema and one of the schema documents and further comprising:

means for replacing the schema if a new schema is backward compatible; and

means for replacing one of the schema documents if a new schema document is backward compatible.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the request comprises access of at least one of the schema and one of the schema documents and wherein access is granted based on an access privilege associated with a user and the schema.

14. A system for managing schemas, comprising:

means for registering a schema and one or more associated schema documents;

means for storing an identifier for the schema, wherein the identifier includes a three-part composite key and a unique name, wherein the three-part composite key includes a target namespace and a schema location, wherein at least one part of the three-part composite key includes a version identifier that is independent of a primary schema document, wherein versioning of the schema is capable of being independent of versioning of the associated schema documents;

means for storing identifiers for each of the one or more associated schema documents, wherein each identifier includes an associated three-part composite key;

means for automatically generating a schema information document based on the schema and the one or more associated schema documents, wherein the schema information document formalizes and records meta-information of the schema, wherein the meta-information of the schema includes identification of a primary schema document, identification of other associated schema documents, and how the primary and the other schema documents are related to each other; and

means for processing a request to be performed on at least one of the schema and an associated schema document using the schema information document.