XMLBeans v1.0.4-jdk1.3 Welcome to XmlBeans! If you've come here to learn more about XmlBeans, here are a few starting points: (1) Docs If you "ant docs" then you can get javadocs built for a bunch of our stuff. In particular, look at the org.apache.xmlbeans package, starting with XmlObject and XmlCursor. Not a lot is doc'ed yet, so you may want to check out the samples to learn more - we really need a little tutorial. In the mean time, if you've got more questions, please post your questions to xmlbeans-user@xml.apache.org (you need to subscribe prior to posting, by sending a blank mail to xmlbeans-user-subscribe@xml.apache.org). (2) Build The default target, aka "ant default", builds everything you need to test and run. Other targets: ant build: builds the public interface jars so other dependencies can compile ant deploy: builds xbean.jar too ant drt: builds drt tests too ant bootstrap: builds xbean.jar, then builds it again using itself. Interface JARs: xmlpublic.jar - the XBeans public interfaces, for use by our users. wlxbean.jar - interfaces specific to the IDE/runtime, not for use by others. Implementation JARs: xbean.jar - the whole xbean.jar - everything you need to run. When this is on your classpath, you don't need xmlpublic.jar or wlxbean.jar Testing JARs: drt.jar - our DRT enumtest.jar, easypo.jar, nameworld.jar, xstypes.jar - sample XBean JARs. Other JARs: oldxbean.jar - a fully built previous-version of xbean.jar, used for bootstrapping, since xbeans are used in building xbean.jar itself. (3) Running There are a few ways you can run. There is some pretty plain-jane JUnit testing code checked into xbean\test\src\drt that you can use to see how to exercise our functionality. (The tests in that directory are our Developer Regression Tests.) You can run the drt using xbean\bin\drt[.sh|.cmd]. Another tool that you can use is "scomp", the XBean schema compiler. The scomp script is at xbean\bin\scomp[.sh|.cmd]. To run scomp, just point it at an XSD file or a directory full of XSD files, and it will produce an output .jar with all your types. Since scomp jars up its results, it can be hard to see what it is doing. But if you use the "-src mydir" option with scomp, you can specify a directory into which it will dump .java source code files that correspond to the java types it is generating. Finally, there is a utility called "dumpxsb". If you unjar a built xbean jar, you'll notice a bunch of .xsb files scattered about. Each one of these files represents a schema type, attribute, or element definition, and you can use "dumpxsb" to see the contents.