RE: [xml-dev] Namespaces enable recognition of the type of document, but

["Michael Kay" <mike@saxonica.com>]

No, namespaces don't identify the type of document. All FpML messages, for
example, use the same namespace. They also share the same root element name;
in this vocabulary the type of document is identified by an xsi:type
attribute. Other vocabularies have other conventions.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/ 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Costello, Roger L. [mailto:costello@mitre.org] 
> Sent: 22 March 2009 13:50
> To: 'xml-dev@lists.xml.org'
> Subject: [xml-dev] Namespaces enable recognition of the type 
> of document, but what about recognition of the instance?
> 
> 
> Hi Folks,
> 
> Consider a task that receives various types of documents. The 
> task needs to "recognize" the type of each document to enable 
> subsequent processing.
> 
> The type of an XML document can be recognized by its 
> namespace. Thus, a task at a health-care insurance company 
> can recognize the following XML document is an insurance 
> claim by examining its namespace:
> 
>     <Claim xmlns="http://www.health-care.org/insurance/claim/";>
>       <patient>John Smith</patient>
>       <doctor>Dr. Sara Johnson</doctor>
>       <procedure>Yearly physical</procedure>
>       <charges>$69.00</charges>
>     </Claim>
> 
> Suppose a doctor and a patient mistakenly file the same 
> claim. The two documents contain the same information. As 
> we've seen, namespaces enable the task at the insurance 
> company to recognize that the two documents are both claims, 
> but it does not enable the task to distinguish between the 
> claim filed by the doctor and the claim filed by the patient. 
> The task is confused when it processes the second claim:
> 
>      Is this the same claim that I processed
>      earlier (i.e. a system error), or is it  
>      a different claim for the same procedure
>      (user error)?"
> 
> Thus, namespaces enable recognition of the type of document, 
> but not the instance. Recognition of both are important.
> 
> One solution is to include an enterprise-wide identifier in 
> each claim. Here is the claim the doctor files:
> 
>     <Claim xmlns="http://www.health-care.org/insurance/claim/";>
>       <id>A309PX</id>
>       <patient>John Smith</patient>
>       <doctor>Dr. Sara Johnson</doctor>
>       <procedure>Yearly physical</procedure>
>       <charges>$69.00</charges>
>     </Claim>
> 
> And here is the claim the patient files:
> 
>     <Claim xmlns="http://www.health-care.org/insurance/claim/";>
>       <id>ZZ34RJ</id>
>       <patient>John Smith</patient>
>       <doctor>Dr. Sara Johnson</doctor>
>       <procedure>Yearly physical</procedure>
>       <charges>$69.00</charges>
>     </Claim>
> 
> Now the task at the insurance company can recognize that: 
> 
> - both documents are claims, and
> - two separate claims have been submitted for the same 
> procedure (i.e. user error).
> 
> 
> QUESTIONS
> 
> 1. Is it best practice to include an enterprise-wide 
> identifier in each business document?
> 
> 2. Is it best practice to use namespaces to identify the type 
> of an XML document, and an enterprise-wide identifier to 
> identify the instance?
> 
> 3. Is there a standard for creating enterprise-wide identifiers?
> 
> 4. Is there a standard way of expressing enterprise-wide 
> identifiers in an XML document?
> 
>    - above I used a very simple <id>...</id> element
> 
> 5. Is the requirement for an enterprise-wide identifier 
> something that you would put in a business requirement's 
> document, or is it something that a system implementer adds 
> on his own initiative? 
> 
> 
> /Roger
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