diff --git a/src/validator/ValidateNeXML.java b/src/validator/ValidateNeXML.java
index 9de1be4..29cea01 100644
--- a/src/validator/ValidateNeXML.java
+++ b/src/validator/ValidateNeXML.java
@@ -1,20 +1,29 @@
 package validator;
 
+import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileReader;
 
 import org.apache.xerces.parsers.DOMParser;
 import org.xml.sax.InputSource;
 
 public class ValidateNeXML {
-	public static String againstXSD(final String xmlFilepath) {
-		String apacheXml = "http://apache.org/xml/properties/schema/";
-		String namespace = "http://www.nexml.org/2009";
-		String schemaURL = "http://www.nexml.org/nexml/xsd/nexml.xsd";
+
+	public static String againstXSD(final String xmlFilepath, final String xsdFilepath, final String namespace) {
 		try {
+			// make sure both paths specify a valid file
+			// File config_fp = new File(xmlFilepath);
+			// if (!config_fp.exists())
+			// 	return "Unable to open file " + xmlFilepath;
+			// config_fp = new File(xsdFilepath);
+			// if (!config_fp.exists())
+			// 	return "Unable to open file " + xsdFilepath;
 			final DOMParser parser = new DOMParser();
 			parser.setFeature("http://xml.org/sax/features/validation", true);
 			parser.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/validation/schema", true);
-			parser.setProperty(apacheXml + "external-schemaLocation", namespace.trim() + " " + schemaURL);
+			if (namespace == null || namespace.trim().equals(""))
+				parser.setProperty("http://apache.org/xml/properties/schema/external-noNamespaceSchemaLocation", xsdFilepath);
+			else
+				parser.setProperty("http://apache.org/xml/properties/schema/external-schemaLocation", namespace.trim() + " " + xsdFilepath);
 			parser.parse(new InputSource(new FileReader(xmlFilepath)));
 			return null;
 		}
@@ -23,17 +32,30 @@ public static String againstXSD(final String xmlFilepath) {
 			return e.getMessage();
 		}
 	}
-	
+
 	public static void main(final String args[]) {
 		if ( args.length == 0 ) {
-			System.out.println("Usage: NexmlValidator <filename>");
+			System.out.println("Usage: NexmlValidator <filename> [schema] [namespace]");
 			System.exit(1);
-		}		
-		final String retval = againstXSD(args[0]);
+		}
+		String xmlFilepath = args[0];
+		String schemaPath;
+		String namespace;
+		if (args.length > 1) {
+			schemaPath = args[1];
+		} else {
+			schemaPath = "http://www.nexml.org/nexml/xsd/nexml.xsd";
+		}
+		if (args.length > 2) {
+			namespace = args[2];
+		} else {
+			namespace = "http://www.nexml.org/2009";
+		}
+		final String retval = againstXSD(xmlFilepath, schemaPath, namespace);
 		if (retval == null) {
 			System.exit(0);
 		}
 		System.out.println("Validation error: " + retval);
 		System.exit(1);
-	}	
+	}
 }