[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: Are we ready for the namespace ID registry, yet? (was: Rel
<Quote1> I originally thought the latter, but I've since come around to the former. </Quote1> Great - hang on a little while (hopefully not more than 1 year), and you'll get this as part of the OASIS/ebXML Registry specification. I've been pressing on for a Namespace Management function in the specification for about a year and a half now, and our (imminent) version 3.0 specification contains some features that lay the groundwork for this to happen in version 4.0 (or in-between versions as a Technical Note). Some use cases that I'm pressing ahead on are: - Registration/maintenance/discovery of a namespace identifier; - Association of a namespace identifier with all registered XML schemas in which that namespace identifier represents the target namespace; - Changing a namespace identifier in the registry, and having it propagate (with user permission) to all pertinent registered XML schemas and XML documents; - Robust querying such as "give me a list of all XML artifacts/schemas/documents that are associated with namespace XYZ; - URN *or* URL representation of namespace identifiers (i.e. as a schema author chooses)- both tie back to the same namespace in the registry; <Quote2> So I got to thinking perhaps what's really needed is some sort of hybrid authority structure. At the top, centralized, is an authority of authorities. It's basically a registry of very short string namespace authority identifiers (2-4 name characters) that are registered with a well-known trusted authority. </Quote2> What you're referencing here is what I term a "hierarchical registry model" in which "child" registries live under "parent" registries. So the next question would be visibility - I've written (in various documents) that a "child" registry may have visibility into one or more "functional namespaces" (like partitions, not XML namespaces) of a "parent" registry. IOW, the child registry would "subscribe" to one or more namespaces. Ultimately, these functional namespaces *could* be manifested as XML namespaces in XML schemas/documents. The parent registry would give the child registry "permission" to have access (read/write, etc.) to one or more namespaces. Additionally, each parent registry could give its child registries visibility into one or more namespaces of *its* parent registries, etc. - the possibilities here are virtually endless. There are also a plethora of other potential models such as centralized registry, peer-to-peer, etc. In terms of authorities, in ISO/IEC 11179 (standard for metadata registries) terms it is called a "Registry Authority" (RA). If you haven't yet seen this standard, I would highly recommend you check it out. <Quote3> where Creo is the authority (identified by 'creo') for the namespace ID 'ppsg'. </Quote3> I would *strongly* advise not mixing these - let the registry tell you who the authority is. If the authority changed, all namespace prefixes would have to change as well (but I realize that you're not recommending registering namespace prefixes). Also, I think you meant to say "for the namespace ID that is represented in the XML document by prefix XYZ". It appears that there's an unintentional mixing here of namespace prefix/ID terminology. <Quote4> How the various registered namespace authorities manage their namespace ID's is up to them. </Quote4> Actually, with a clearly defined governance structure, it would be up to the governance authority that is above the namespace authories. <Quote5> There would be one unvouched for magic global namespace authority identifier, such as 'glob' than anyone can use who isn't registered as a namespace authority: </Quote5> Sounds like a hierarchical namespace ID stucture, such as a URN affords you. So there would be a "base" URN (or URL), and some/all of the namespace IDs would extend from this URN/URL. Kind Regards, Joe Chiusano Booz | Allen | Hamilton Jeff Lowery wrote: > > > Perhaps it may help if we scope this a bit else spin our wheels for > > eternity. Are we speaking here of a registry model/standard that can be > > implemented and used by public and private authorities alike, or a > > single, centralized public registry that is under a single authority? > > I originally thought the latter, but I've since come around to the former. > Let me explain: > > My original thought was a centralized, simple repository of unique, > short-string namespace ID's (which can be used a prefixes to local names), > managed by some single authority. I hadn't thought thru the political > issues, because frankly I wasn't sure the idea had technical merit. So far, > no one's convince me of any fatal technical flaw (it is a pretty simple, if > brutish, idea after all). > > However, as Norm pointed out, when you need an [ID], you want it now. You > don't want to have to go through hoops. > > So I got to thinking perhaps what's really needed is some sort of hybrid > authority structure. At the top, centralized, is an authority of > authorities. It's basically a registry of very short string namespace > authority identifiers (2-4 name characters) that are registered with a > well-known trusted authority. Once you're a registered namespace authority > with this authority (sorry, I hope I'm not confusing you), then your free to > create and manage your own namespace IDs, in whatever manner you see fit. > > What you wind up with are ID prefixes something like: > > <creo_ppsg:ProjectSpec foo="quux"> > <adbe_PDF:dict> > ... > </adbe_PDF:dict> > ... > </creo_ppsg:ProjectSpec> > > where Creo is the authority (identified by 'creo') for the namespace ID > 'ppsg'. The '_' is a separator (which I think is an allowed Name character, > though I wouldn't swear to it). Likewise, Adobe (adbe) is the namespace > authority for the ID 'PDF'. > > How the various registered namespace authorities manage their namespace ID's > is up to them. Nobody else, however, can use 'creo_' or 'adbe_' at the > beginning of their namespace IDs. > > There would be one unvouched for magic global namespace authority > identifier, such as 'glob' than anyone can use who isn't registered as a > namespace authority: > > <glob_myns:foo/> > > Anyway, that's about as far as I've given thought to it. I think that's > about as far as I want to write about it, anyway. ;-} I got to get back to > making this darn SOAP client work now. begin:vcard n:Chiusano;Joseph tel;work:(703) 902-6923 x-mozilla-html:FALSE url:www.bah.com org:Booz | Allen | Hamilton;IT Digital Strategies Team adr:;;8283 Greensboro Drive;McLean;VA;22012; version:2.1 email;internet:chiusano_joseph@b... title:Senior Consultant fn:Joseph M. Chiusano end:vcard
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