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<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.
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