Elements used as request or response bodies contain a set of attributes that enable XML validation. The body of a PUT or POST request must contain all XML namespace identifiers required to validate the elements it contains. A response body typically includes all the XML namespace identifiers that the server used to validate it, in addition to other attributes that specify the schema locations searched during validation.

The VMware Cloud Director API uses these XML namespace identifier attributes and prefixes.

Table 1. XML Namespace Identifiers in the VMware Cloud Director API
Name Value Requirement
xmlns http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5 Required in all request bodies.
xmlns:vmext http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/extension/v1.5 Required in request bodies that include elements from the vSphere platform extensions.
xmlns:ve http://www.vmware.com/schema/ovfenv Required in request bodies that include an ovf:Environmentelement.
xmlns:ovf http://schemas.dmtf.org/ovf/envelope/1 Required in request bodies that include elements defined in OVF schema http://schemas.dmtf.org/ovf/envelope/1/dsp8023.xsd.
xmlns:rasd http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2/ CIM_ResourceAllocationSettingData Required in request bodies that include elements defined in OVF schema CIM_ResourceAllocationSettingData.xsd.
xmlns:oe http://schemas.dmtf.org/ovf/environment/1 Required in request bodies that include elements defined in OVF schema dsp8027_1.1.0.xsd.
xmlns:vssd http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2/ CIM_VirtualSystemSettingData Not required in request bodies.
xsi:schemaLocation An installation-dependent schema location search path. See http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-0/. Not required in request bodies.
xmlns:xsi http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance Not required in request bodies.

XML Namespace Prefixes in Request and Response Bodies

When a request or response includes elements from multiple XML namespaces, each element name is prefixed with a namespace identifier. Unless all elements in a request or response originate in the same XML namespace, these prefixes are required in request bodies, and are always included in response bodies.

The examples omit XML namespace identifiers from most responses. The following fragment shows how some of them appear in a typical response body.

<VApp 
   xmlns="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5" 
   ...
   xmlns:ovf="http://schemas.dmtf.org/ovf/envelope/1"
   xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.vmware.com/vcloud/v1.5 https://vcloud.example.com/api/schema/v1.5/master.xsd">
   ...>
   ...
</VApp>