Grouping and nesting hierarchical namespaces

At a computing system comprising a processor operatively coupled to a memory, a computer implemented method for developing hierarchical XML namespaces having at least one overlapping element, the method-accessing an XML Schema Definition (XSD) document;

• accessing an XML Schema Definition (XSD) document;
• reading a first target hierarchical XML namespace associated with a first group of one or more elements of the XSD document, the first target hierarchical XML namespace comprising a first namespace URI;
• associating the first group of one or more elements of the definition XSD document with the first hierarchical target XML namespace as well as a first abbreviation corresponding to the first target hierarchical XML namespace;
• reading a second target hierarchical XML namespace associated with a second group of one or more elements of the XSD document the second target hierarchical XML namespace comprising a second namespace URI;
• and
• associating the second group of one or more elements of the XSD document with the second target hierarchical XML namespace as well as a second abbreviation corresponding to the second target hierarchical XML namespace, wherein at least one overlapping element is both an element of the first group and of the second group, thereby associating the at least one overlapping element with both the first namespace URI and the second namespace URI and the first and second abbreviations;
• and
• associating a group identifier with the first and second abbreviations, such that when the group identifier is used in an XML document, elements associated with the first abbreviation are associated with the first target hierarchical XML namespace and the first namespace URI and elements associated with the second abbreviation are associated with the second target hierarchical XML namespace and the second namespace URI;
• wherein the first group of one or more elements comprises all of the elements in the XSD document including all of the second group of one or more elements, thereby nesting the second target hierarchical XML namespace with its associated second namespace URI within the first target hierarchical XML namespace with its associated first namespace URI.