Same or different xml namespaces? <p>In my project, there are lots of XML files of various sort, like XSDs, WSDLs, parameter maps etc. They all receive a generated namespace by the IDE, but the namespaces are not unique (across projects - elements with the same name get the same namespace) nor descriptive (or confusing - they all begin with "http://www.ibm.com/...", even though they define my own entities, not those of IBM). Namespace refactoring is necessary, then.</p> <p>My doubts are the following:</p> <p>1) Should every element have its own namespace, or should related elements share their namespaces? For instance, </p> <ul> <li>Should SOAP request and response messages belong to the same namespace, or should they have their own namespace?</li> <li>Should WSDL and related XSD use the same target namespace, or different?</li> </ul> <p>For example:</p> <pre><code>http://www.xarx.com/xmlns/TheProject/Administration/wsdl/StartProcess http://www.xarx.com/xmlns/TheProject/Administration/xsd/StartProcessRequest http://www.xarx.com/xmlns/TheProject/Administration/xsd/StartProcessResponse </code></pre> <p>or everything into</p> <pre><code>http://www.xarx.com/xmlns/TheProject/Administration </code></pre> <p>2) All generated namespaces that will be publicly visible must be corrected, sure. But what about the ones that are internal to the project - is their refactoring a waste of time? They might appear in the administration console or in logs, and wrong namespaces there could be misleading.</p>