Hi Thomas  - The MODS EC is aware of this defect, which in fact was introduced several versions ago.  Before we published version 3.6 we talked about fixing it, but we decided not to. The defect seemed innocuous and had been around long enough that any problems it may have caused would have already surfaced, and that fixing it now might result in unintended consequences.

Is it causing problems?  If it is, we'll look further into fixing it.

Ray Denenberg
Library of Congress

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Metadata Object Description Schema List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Thomas Scheffler
> Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2015 4:05 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [MODS] Critical XML Schema bugs
> 
> Dear MODS users and officials,
> 
> recently we updated our code to support MODS 3.6 and the new
> nameIdentifier which uses the type definition "identifierDefinition":
> 
> <xs:complexType name="identifierDefinition">
>    <xs:simpleContent>
>      <xs:extension base="stringPlusLanguage">
>      <xs:attribute name="displayLabel" type="xs:string"/>
>      <xs:attribute name="type" type="xs:string"/>
>      <xs:attribute name="typeURI" type="xs:anyURI"/>
>      <xs:attribute name="invalid" fixed="yes"/>
>      <xs:attribute name="altRepGroup" type="xs:string"/>
>      </xs:extension>
>    </xs:simpleContent>
> </xs:complexType>
> 
> Problematic is the fact that @invalid is set to fixed="yes". When you use a
> schema aware parser to parse a MODS document this will actually attach a
> @invalid="yes" on every element of "identifierDefinition" (like "identifier" or
> "nameIdentifier") that is missing that attribute.
> 
> XML Schema part 1, section 3.2.1:
> "[..] fixed indicates that the attribute value if present must equal the supplied
> constraint value, and if absent receives the supplied value as for default."
> 
> This bug is not introduced in 3.6 but is also in older versions of MODS.
> 
> Currently all identifier|nameIdentifier get an 'invalid' label.
> Obviously this is not way it was intended.
> 
> Can you please publish updated versions of affected MODS Schema
> documents?
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Thomas
> --
> Thomas Scheffler
> Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
> Thüringer Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Bibliotheksplatz 2
> 07743 Jena
> Phone: ++49 3641 940027
> FAX:   ++49 3641 940022