General XSD Usage Conventions

This section outlines general conventions that apply to the XSD as a whole.

Required Elements

The Snapp Data Standard has a (very) few required entities (e.g., Name) and a verelements (e.g., First Name, Last Name).

Overall File Size and Attachment

The Snapp Data Standard XSD itself doesn't enforce an overall file size. This isn't a problem for the vast majority of data in the standard – but since the standard allows for mime-encoded attachments, the file size could theoretically grow to a point where it causes problems for data exchange. To avoid the situation where implementers must handle files of an arbitrarily large size, we recommend that data exchange implementers follow these guidelines:

1. Do not send Snapp XML Data Files exceeding 5mb, unless explicitly agreed upon with the recipient.
2. Do offer the option to receive data without attachments, e.g., through an API.
3. Do omit attachments by default, e.g., through an API.

The Scholar Snapp Central API adheres to these guidelines. We can receive bulk data exchanges containing larger files.