[DDI-users] DDI 3.2: URN precedence in identifiables

Jani Hautamäki Jani.Hautamaki at staff.uta.fi
Wed Dec 3 17:09:24 EST 2014


In DDI-Lifecycle 3.2 all elements which are instances of

{ddi:reusable:3_2}AbstractIdentifiableType

can have either URN or Agency/ID/Version sequence or both.
If the element has both, the field-level specification

http://www.ddialliance.org/Specification/DDI-Lifecycle/3.2/XMLSchema/FieldLevelDocumentation/schemas/reusable_xsd/complexTypes/AbstractIdentifiableType.html

states that

"If both URN and the identification sequence is used,
and there is any conflict, the URN takes precedence. "

The meaning of "taking precedence" is, to me at least, somewhat unclear.
Consider, for instance, the following XML document which is valid
with respect to the DDI-Lifecycle 3.2 XML Schema:

---8<---8<---8<---
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ddi:DDIInstance
    xmlns:ddi="ddi:instance:3_2"
    xmlns:r="ddi:reusable:3_2"
    >

  <r:URN>urn:ddi:acme.org:another_ddi_instance:2</r:URN>
  <r:Agency>acme.org</r:Agency>
  <r:ID>ddi_instance</r:ID>
  <r:Version>1</r:Version>

</ddi:DDIInstance>
---8<---8<---8<---

In the document above, the URN and the Agency/ID/Version sequence
are conflicting. According to the field-level specification, in such
a case the URN takes precedence.

My question is then:

Since URN takes precedence, does this mean that the <ddi:DDIInstance>
element is known only as "urn:ddi:acme.org:another_ddi_instance:2"?

In other words, is the above document equivalent to the document below?

---8<---8<---8<---
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ddi:DDIInstance
    xmlns:ddi="ddi:instance:3_2"
    xmlns:r="ddi:reusable:3_2"
    >
  <r:URN>urn:ddi:acme.org:another_ddi_instance:2</r:URN>
</ddi:DDIInstance>
---8<---8<---8<---

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