XML-XSD

date: 2026-05-30 tags:

  • Engine
  • d_XML
  • d_XSD
  • d_System cssclasses:
  • Aurora.css Status: Current Linker:
  • “Arctis Aurora” System:
  • “XSDGenerator” Dependencies:
  • “IXMLParser”
  • “A_XSDElementPropertyAttribute”
  • “A_XSDTypeAttribute”
  • “A_XSDActionDependencyAttribute” Implementors:
  • “INPUT”
  • “Asset Registries”
  • “Vulkan Control” Namespace: ArctisAurora.Core.Registry SourceFiles: AuroraEngine/Core/Registry/XSDGenerator.cs VerifiedAgainst: 2026-05-30

Overview

The data layer that lets the engine be driven by XML. It has two halves:

  1. Schema generation — reflect over types tagged with the A_XSD* attributes and emit .xsd schemas describing the allowed XML.
  2. XML parsing — parse XML documents (validated against those schemas) into live engine objects.

Almost everything configurable rides on this: the Asset Registries definitions, the UI tree (Vulkan Control), keybinds (INPUT), the Bootstrapper sequence, and samplers. The C# type is the schema — there is no hand-authored XSD.

Architecture

graph TD
  Types[Types tagged A_XSDType / A_XSDElementProperty / A_XSDActionDependency] --> Gen[XSDGenerator]
  Gen --> Schemas[.xsd schemas]
  Schemas -. validate .-> Docs[XML documents]
  Docs --> Parse[IXMLParser implementations]
  Parse --> Objects[engine objects]
  AnyType[AnyXMLType] -. string ↔ Type .-> Parse
  • A_XSDType(name, category) — marks a class/struct/enum as an XSD type (supports AllowedChildren, Min/MaxChildren). See Attributes & Conventions.
  • A_XSDElementProperty(name, category) — a member becomes an XSD attribute (scalars) or element (collections).
  • A_XSDActionDependency(name, category) — a method becomes a referenceable action (keybinds, bootstrap steps).
  • XSDGenerator — emits the schemas. AnyXMLType — resolves type-name strings ↔ Type at parse time. IXMLParser<T> — the parse contract systems implement.

Lifecycle / Flow

  1. At startup (before bootstrap) XSDGenerator.GenerateXSD() reflects all assemblies and writes the schemas to Paths.XMLSCHEMAS (skipping unchanged ones).
  2. Each system then parses its own XML through the Bootstrapper steps — EntityRegistry, AssetRegistries, InputHandler, VulkanControl, all using AnyXMLType to resolve type names.

Data / XML formats

Generated per run:

  • {Category}TypeSchema.xsd — complex + enum types for one category
  • AllTypesSchema.xsd — union of all type names across categories
  • actionSchema.xsd — all [A_XSDActionDependency] methods as string enumerations

Invariants & gotchas

  • Do not hand-edit generated .xsd files — overwritten each run.
  • MemberMap (C# primitive → xs:*) and AnyXMLType.typeMap (string → Type) are two halves of one mapping and must be kept in sync by hand.
  • An Action attribute only resolves if the XML name matches the method name exactly (known sharp edge tracked in the engine WIP list).

Key types