[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message]

RE: Namespace problem

• To: <pradeepbhat@s...>,<xml-dev@l...>
• Subject: RE: Namespace problem
• From: "Michael Kay" <michael.h.kay@n...>
• Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2002 13:27:23 +0100
• Importance: Normal
• In-reply-to: <000d01c20c86$f31229c0$cf02a8c0@pradeep>
• Reply-to: <michael.h.kay@n...>

> I have an element <Name> under <Customer>  and <product> in 
> the same xml file.The problem here is that I receive the file 
> from my business partner.We have decided 

Do you mean "my company has decided", or "we have agreed with our
business partner"?

to use namespace to 
> distinguish duplicate elements and attributes. The way to 
> distinguish between the 2 <name> tags is with 2 different 
> URI. Does this mean we have to agree upon the URI for 
> Customer and product tags?? I want to know whether this means 
> that the 2 URI are fixed(they do not change unless we both 
> agree for  a change)?
> 
Yes, you have to agree the URI. The namespace URI is as much a part of
the name as the local names "customer", "product", and "name".

Don't try to use different namespaces for the same vocabulary in
different applications, e.g. one namespace internally and another for
interchange with your partner. I've seen people try to do this and you
get in a horrible mess.

I'm not sure that using different namespace URIs for customer name and
product name is a good idea. The namespace URI should reflect the naming
authority: who is responsible for defining what this name means? It's
not intended to qualify the context of the name. It's entirely
reasonable in XML to use <name> as a child of both <product> and
<customer>; if you want to keep them distinct, qualify them as
<customer.name> and <product.name>. Don't use different namespaces
unless customer.name and product.name are defined by different naming
authorities.

Michael Kay
Software AG
home: Michael.H.Kay@n...
work: Michael.Kay@s... 

• References:
  • Namespace problem
    • From: "pradeep bhat" <pradeepbhat@s...>

• Prev by Date: Tool to translate from one schema to another
• Next by Date: Re: Just say NO to XSD
• Previous by thread: Namespace problem
• Next by thread: Re: Namespace problem
• Index(es):
  • Date
  • Thread