Why must <configSections> be 1st element of <configuration> ?

[Joseph Geretz]

Parser Error Message:
Only one <configSections> element allowed. It must be the first child
element of the root <configuration> element.

OK, fine, easy enough to fix, I just need to copy and paste this block to
where .NET wants it to be. But I can't help but think, why??? Doesn't this
insistense on ordinal placement run counter to the whole XML 'philosophy'? I
mean the node "/configuration/configSections" should be just as accessible
whether it is the first, last or in between other nodes, as long as it is a
direct child of "/configuration". So why this insistence that it be the
absolute first among its siblings?

- Joe Geretz -

 

[David Browne]

Parser Error Message:
Only one <configSections> element allowed. It must be the first child
element of the root <configuration> element.

OK, fine, easy enough to fix, I just need to copy and paste this block to
where .NET wants it to be. But I can't help but think, why??? Doesn't this
insistense on ordinal placement run counter to the whole XML 'philosophy'?

No. An XML schema can be as tight or loose as you like, but like with all
type systems, tighter is better, within reason.

For instance his requirement guarantees that I can read a configSection with
streaming XML reader by hiting the first element node and then skipping
forward to the desired section. Without a guarantee about the ordering I
would have to load the whole XML document into a DOM and run an XPath query
just to find a single the configSections


David

 

[Joseph Geretz]

Thanks for pointing that out David. You're absolutely correct.

- Joe Geretz -