Re: XML.org implementation (Packages)

[Len Gallagher <LGallagher@nist.gov>]

At 04:02 PM 4/4/00 , Terry wrote in response to Len:
>| A request to retrieve item DED1 will return only items A and B.
>| 
>| A request to retrieve item DED2 will return only items C, D, and E.
>
>Items DED1 and DED2 (A,B) and (C-E) are not registered items, so
>you'd never request their retrieval.

This may be a big part of my confusion. Since a "submission" is not clearly
defined in the OASIS specification, I'm assuming that it can only be one of
the following:

  1)  A single <data-element>
or
  2)  A single <data-element-dictionary>
or possibly
  3)  A single <classification-scheme>

I don't see anything in the spec that would allow submission of a set of
<data-element>s that are not contained in a <data-element-dictionary>.  So
in the above example, DED1 and DED2 would be registered items.

Of course we can easily fix this misunderstanding by defining a Submission
DTD something like the following (using BNF instead of XML to describe it):

<submission> ::= 
   <lead-in-stuff>
   <submission-content>

<submission-content> ::=
  {   <data-element>
    | <data-element-dictionary>
    | <classification-scheme> }+

Then a SO could submit a set of n <data-elements> for registration and have
just the n items registered.  Or, the SO could combine the n
<data-element>s into a <data-element-dictionary>, resulting in n+1 items
being registered, the n <data-element>s and their containing "package", the
<data-element-dictionary>. This would give the SO an opportunity to
"package" the submitted <data-element>s in a meaningful way.

But -- alas, once a package is specified, I don't see an easy way to allow
it to be amended, only replaced.  The replacement would have a different ID
and a different URN, e.g. My_Package_Ver1.1 might become My_Package_Ver1.2.

-- Len





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Len Gallagher                             LGallagher@nist.gov
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