Message model objects: wildcard elements

A wildcard element represents an element which does not appear in the message model, but which could appear at the same position as the wildcard element in the input message.

Wildcard elements provide a means of adding flexibility to the message model, so that messages can be parsed even if they do not exactly match the message model.

Wildcard elements can only appear within a complex type or group with Composition of sequence and Content Validation of closed. Wildcard elements provide a similar capability to setting the Content Validation property of a complex type or group to Open or Open Defined.

WebSphere Message Broker
If you generate a dictionary from your message set and deploy it to WebSphere Message Broker, wildcard elements will be validated against the model according to the following rules:
  • If Process Content is set to strict, only elements which are declared in the same message set will be allowed to appear in place of the wildcard element.
  • If Process Content is set to lax or skip, any element will be allowed to appear in place of the wildcard element.

If the broker is prior to WebSphere Message Broker Version 6.0, the number of elements permitted to match against the wildcard element is unpredictable (Min Occurs and Max Occurs are ignored).

Related concepts
Message modeling concepts
Message model objects
Message model objects: complex types
Message model objects: groups
Message model objects: wildcard attributes
Related tasks
Adding a wildcard element
Adding a wildcard attribute
Related reference
Content Validation properties for complex types