[DDI-users] Naming Conventions in DDI

[Wendy Thomas]

Hi Christiana,

If by naming conventions you mean what we have named elements and
attributes, I'd say we don't currently have many formal rules. These are
the general ones we follow, at least in DDI-L:

Words in object names are spelled out

elements: upper CamelCase
attributes: lower camelCase

The following element types follow the convention  of XxxxTerm where Xxxx
is unique to the applied use and Term refers to the type (i.e.,
ReferenceType) or genre (i.e., XxxxGroup)

XxxxReference - Xxxx generally refers to the type of object being referenced
XxxxName - Xxxx is specific to the parent element type
XxxxGroup - Xxxx is specific to the parent scheme type
XxxxScheme - Xxxx is specific to the object type(s) in the scheme
XxxxDomain
XxxxRepresentation

In preparing 3.2 we reviewed for consistency and imposed the following
rules:

An element name should appear in only one namespace
Attributes that occur in multiple locations (i.e., type) should perform the
same role in each location

The actual terms selected are not as generic as they could/should be. Some
are carryovers from DDI-C, others reflect the questionnaire centric, social
science centric history of early DDI. For example "DataCollection" should
be interpreted as "DataCapture", the ControlConstruct which captures
questionnaire flow can also capture a sequence of processes used to capture
data from registries or from instruments capturing environmental,
biomedical or other data. These issues are some that are being addressed as
we look towards where DDI is moving in the future.

If this does not address your question or you need additional information
let me know and I will try to provide additional detail.

Wendy Thomas
TIC





On Mon, Dec 10, 2012 at 6:50 AM, Mcmahon, Christiana <
christiana.mcmahon.11 at ucl.ac.uk> wrote:

>  Dear All,****
>
> ** **
>
> Are there any guidance notes available on applying naming conventions to
> DDI entities? If so, I’d be most grateful if someone could point me in the
> direction of these or to any examples. ****
>
> Many thanks in advance for your help.****
>
> ** **
>
> Kind Regards****
>
> Christiana McMahon****
>
> PhD Student****
>
> ** **
>
> MRC Centre of Epidemiology for Child Health****
>
> UCL Institute of Child Health****
>
> 30 Guilford Street****
>
> London****
>
> WC1N 1EH****
>
> 0207 905 2790****
>
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>


-- 
Wendy L. Thomas                              Phone: +1 612.624.4389
Data Access Core Director                 Fax:   +1 612.626.8375
Minnesota Population Center             Email: wlt at umn.edu
University of Minnesota
50 Willey Hall
225 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
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