XML Validation with no connection to the internet

Question

Hi,
I'm trying to validate a ml instance document against a xml schema, using the javax.xml.validation.Validator.validate() method. This works fine as long as I have an internet connection, but not when I disconnect from the internet it fails.
I've detected, using a network sniffer, that this is due to the fact that the validation process tries to fetch the XMLSchema.dtd and datatypes.dtd from w3.org. Is there any way to avoid this by prestoring these somewhere? So that the internet connection is not needed?
I need to be able to do validation without a connection to the internet since the environment where my application is deployed does not have such a connection.
Ray

Answer 1

Hi Ray,
Were you able to resolve this issue? I am encountering a very similar problem where I am not connected to the internet and it fails during the newSchema method on javax.xml.validation.SchemaFactory. I have attempted to implement the suggestions of ExtremeGardener and vidyut with no luck.
Per ExtremeGardener's suggestion of replacing xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" with xmlns:xs="XMLSchema.xsd" and storing it locally, it gave me an error for trying to set the "xs" or "xsd" prefixes to anything other than "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema." I forget the exact error. I also tried to use my own prefix and it did not like that either.
Per vidyut's suggestion of using a catalog resolver, I believe that I have tried that too (if I understand correctly). I created an LSResourceResolver and tied it to the SchemaFactory. I can invoke it for a namespace but that did not resolve the issue because it only invokes the resolver on an import, include, or redefine. I believe that it is trying to reach the internet due to the xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" attribute within the top-level schema element in the XSD and I know of no way to invoke it for that.
I also created an ErrorHandler and tied it to the SchemaFactory. That shows me the errors and they are all related to the standard XML data types defined in XMLSchema.xsd. The errors that I am seeing are all of this form: "UndeclaredPrefix: Cannot resolve 'xs:string' as a QName: the prefix 'xs' is not declared."
I am currently using the SchemaFactory in Java 1.5, but I am thinking about trying the Xerces SchemaFactory since they are not exactly the same implementation.
Does anyone have any other suggestions? Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
betzro1