9.2 General Conformance Rules

9.2.1 Schema Validation

A message is conformant to this specification only when it validates against the set of accompanying XML Schema files.

9.2.2 Allowed Value Lists

The allowed values are listed, defined and provided through the DDEX Data Dictionary Standard in accordance with the latest version of DDEX-DICT. Other values are not possible unless by using the mechanism described below:

This Standard does not explicitly list allowed values. The XML Schema files contain the allowed values at the time of writing of this Standard. Some of the allowed value sets contain a provision to either use a User Defined Value instead of a DDEX-defined value (in that case the Message Sender has to select the value UserDefined from the AVS and provide its own value in the XML attribute UserDefinedValue) or to augment a DDEX-defined value (in that case the Message Sender may not select the value UserDefined from the AVS but shall provide its additional information in the XML attribute UserDefinedValue). In either case the Namespace attribute shall be used to indicate where the UserDefinedValue is defined and maintained.

9.2.3 Contractually Mandatory

The messages defined in this standard contain fields with cardinality “0-1” or “0-n”. Therefore these fields are from the standard’s point of view, optional. Such fields may, however, be mandatory when a DDEX message is sent in a specific commercial context.

In such circumstances, a message is deemed conformant only if and when it contains all the “contractually mandatory” fields as agreed between the Message Sender and Message Recipient.