A basic schema for data aggregates (Records and Arrays), using terminology consistent with ISO 11404. An Item is an item of data of any type A record is a list of fields A Record/field contains an item of data Optional pointer to record-type schema Optional count of the number of fields in the record. A record is a list of fields An array is an indexed set of records of homogeneous type An Array/element contains an Item or a Record or an Array Optional pointer to the record-type schema. This should be used when the elements of the array are Records Optional count of the number of elements in the array. An array is an indexed set of records of homogeneous type Choice of Item or Record or Array - used in composing Arrays Convenience group that bundles all the soft-typed XML-encoded aggregates into a choice group