Re: [xml-dev] Preoccupation with zero, empty strings, empty elements, empty everything

At 2013-12-07 14:38 -0500, John Cowan wrote:
>On Sat, Dec 7, 2013 at 1:10 PM, 
><<mailto:>> wrote:
>Â
>Â 
><http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/UBL-2.1.html#S-EMPTY-ELEMENTS>http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.1/UBL-2.1.html#S-EMPTY-ELEMENTS
>Â  "UBL takes the position that empty elements do not provide the level
>Â  Â of assurance necessary for business information exchanges and
>Â  Â therefore must not be used."
>
>... and have reduced the requirement to the following rules:
>
>Â  Â [IND5] UBL conformant instance documents MUST NOT contain an
>Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  element devoid of content or containing null values,
>Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  except in the case of extension, where the UBL
>Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  ExtensionContent element is used.
>
>
>The full rationale doesn't seem to exclude the 
>use of inherently empty elements (those with a 
>content model of EMPTY) that have attributes, yet the rule does.

Except that none of our elements are inherently 
empty and so the situation is not 
encountered.  Every data item (simple content 
element) is based on one of a selection of data 
type representations, none of which provides for an empty value.

>Â  Â [IND6] The absence of a construct or data in a UBL instance
>Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  document MUST NOT carry meaning.
>
>
>In that case, how does one express the notions "data unavailable"
>and "data does not exist" in UBL?

If an invoice, say, doesn't have a Note, then it 
just doesn't have a <cbc:Note> element.  But that 
is merely a property of the invoice that it 
doesn't have a note ... there are no business 
decisions leveraged on the absence of a note.  We 
encouraged the business analysts on the team to 
design the document objects to be declarative 
such that everything is manifest with no 
interpretation needed of absent content as that 
would presume the recipient and the sender agreed 
upon what the absence meant.  Whereas when an 
element exists, its definition is part of the UBL standard.

I'll talk with my committee colleagues to get some specific examples.

. . . . . . . . Ken


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