This is is list of the key changes made for the September 2007 minor release of the ome-xml data model.

The new minor release of the schema has the same namespace and a new version number. As a minor release, any file that validated correctly using the last major release will also validate correctly using this new release. Some files that failed to validate before will now be valid. It is important to update any file readers to understand the changes. File writers will not necessarily need corrected.

Version

• The version number of the ome.xsd schema is now 2
• The version number of the SPW.xsd schema is now 2
• The version number of the AnalysisModule.xsd schema is now 2
• The version number of the BinaryFile.xsd schema is now 2
• The version number of the CLI.xsd schema is now 2
• The version number of the MLI.xsd schema is now 2
• The version number of the STD.xsd schema is now 2

Schema Element (all files)

The schema element now imports the XML namespace from a specific location. This gets round a problem with using the old XML namespace that appeared with some XML parsers (notably Xerces) that caused the schema to not be valid.

Instrument (ome.xsd)

Parts of the Instrument object are now optional:

• LightSource
• Detector
• Objective
• OTF

Experimenter and ExperimenterType (ome.xsd)

This has been changes so FirstName, LastName, Email and OMEName are all now optional. However to be valid an Experimenter must have AT LEAST ONE of these present. Experimenter is now a self contained object and no longer uses ExperimenterType which has been removed.

Description (ome.xsd)

While there has been no real change to the Description element it has had its annotation altered to indicate a change in its use. It will become a string type in the future. The content model is currently ANY, but this is going to change to String. Description is no longer the correct place for an XML sub-document - use CustomAttributes instead.

SerialNumber, part of ManafactSpec and used by Objective, Detector, Microscope and LightSource (ome.xsd)

This has been made optional as there are occasion when the writing application does not have this information. While it may be optional it must be stressed that we feel it should normally be included and as such the validator will raise a warning (but not an error) if it is not present or is empty.

Regex for LSID / Internal ID (ome.xsd, SPW.xsd, AnalysisModule.xsd)

There has been a minor change to all the regular expression (xsd:pattern) portions of the IDs that means they will no longer generate an error on some parsers (notably the Java one). This concerned the way the - (dash) character was specified as part of a URN, it is now escaped correctly.

DBLocation, Label and Parent, parts of Element (STD.xsd)

The DBLocation is now optional. Label and Parent have new been added.

Description and Label (STD.xsd)

These now contain a reference to XML:lang that allows the language the Description or Label is written in to be recorded.