elementFormDefault attribute in XSD Schema definition

This attribute (elementFormDefault) is useful when we are defining our own <complexType> in our schema and the main purpose is to decide whether the <element> inside <complexType> should be in targetNamespace or global namespace

Example:

Sample XSD:

<?xml version = '1.0' encoding = 'UTF-8'?>

<xsd:schema xmlns:ns0="http://ticket.com/ns" elementFormDefault="qualified" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" targetNamespace="http://ticket.com/ns">  

   <xsd:complexType name="routeTicket">

      <xsd:sequence>

         <xsd:element name="ticket" type="xsd:string" minOccurs="0"/>

      </xsd:sequence>

   </xsd:complexType>

   <xsd:complexType name="routeTicketResponse">

      <xsd:sequence>

         <xsd:element name="return" type="xsd:string" minOccurs="0"/>

      </xsd:sequence>

   </xsd:complexType>

   <xsd:element name="routeTicket" type="ns0:routeTicket"/>

   <xsd:element name="routeTicketResponse" type="ns0:routeTicketResponse"/>

</xsd:schema>

when elementFormDefault="unqualified"	when elementFormDefault="qualified"
Valid XML for the given XSD: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <xs:routeTicket xmlns:xs="http://ticket.com/ns">   <ticket>str1234</ticket> </xs:routeTicket>	Valid XML for the given XSD: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <xs:routeTicket xmlns:xs="http://ticket.com/ns">   <xs:ticket>str1234</xs:ticket> </xs:routeTicket>
XPATH to access ticket /xs:routeTicket/ticket	XPATH to access ticket /xs:routeTicket/xs:ticket

Useful online tools

http://xsd2xml.com/

http://www.freeformatter.com/xml-validator-xsd.html

http://www.freeformatter.com/xpath-tester.html