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Off the top of my head, I'm not sure that versioning namespaces as
described below (using mods) presents any *new* challenges. Let's say
that namespaces are required. When a schema imports elements from other
schemas, you must include the external namespace prefix for those
elements in instance documents. Since the namespace identifiers and
their prefixes are unique, there is no problem here in determining which
element definition to use. Again, I mocked up a test for this situation
using XMLSpy and there was no problem because the validating parser
required that namespace prefixes be used.

Let's say for the sake of argument that there is a way avoid using
namespace qualification. In this situation I believe there would be a
problem, there would be no way to tell which definition of the element
should be used. The important thing to remember, however, is that this
would always a problem, regardless of whether the referenced namespaces
are related versions. So the situation described below in which we have
2 namespaces, mods1 and mods2, with like-named elements being referenced
from each namespace is no different from having 2 unrelated namespaces,
say foo and bar, that contain like-named elements that are referenced
from a 3rd shema (eg. foo:title and bar:title). Semantically, they
present the same problem. That's probably one of the reasons namespaces
are used in the first place.

Now the situation described below is actually different from what was
proposed for PREMIS (and what is used by METS). Below, each namespace
identifier is unique, http://www.loc.gov/mods1 and
http://www.loc.gov/mods2, and so are the schema locations. What we were
proposing for PREMIS is to maintain the same namespace identifer, but
version the schema locations. The possibility for confusion here seems
greater, but I covered why I think even that situation is not a problem
in my previous email.

Again, I want to reiterate that the tests I created to prove the
concepts were run using only XMLSpy which is my XML editor du jour (hey
it's free and seems to work well). I have noticed cases where XMLSpy
handles namespaces differently than say Xerces, but if anything XMLSpy
seems to fall on the strict side of things. If I have some time, I may
try out some other parsing tools.

It might be nice to get another opinion on this topic, Jerry are you out
there?

-Chris


Ray Denenberg, Library of Congress wrote:

>The scenario I had in mind is represented by this sample schema:
>
>............................................................................
>...............
><xsd:schema
>
>xmlns:mods1=http://www.loc.gov/mods1
>xmlns:mods2="http://www.loc.gov/mods2"   ......>
>
><xsd:import namespace="http://www.loc.gov/mods1"
>schemaLocation="mods1.xsd"/>
><xsd:import namespace="http://www.loc.gov/mods2"
>schemaLocation="mods2.xsd"/>
>
><xsd:element name="root">
><xsd:complexType>
><xsd:sequence>
><xsd:element ref="mods1:titleInfo"/>
><xsd:element ref="mods2:titleInfo"/>
><xsd:element name="otherElement1"/>
><xsd:element name="otherElement2"/>
><xsd:element name="otherElement3"/>
><xsd:element name="etc"/>
></xsd:sequence>
></xsd:complexType>
></xsd:element>
>
></xsd:schema>
>.........................................................
>
>In this case someone has constructed a (hypothetical) schema that mixes
>elements from two mods versions (along with other elements), specifically,
>titleInfo, where (hypothetically) the titleInfo definition has changed from
>(hypothetical) version 1 to (hypothetical) version 2.
>
>Does this help?
>
>--Ray
>
>
>
>
>
>
>>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 18:50:03 -0400
>>From: Christopher Vicary <[log in to unmask]>
>>Reply-To: PREMIS Implementors Group Forum <[log in to unmask]>
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Subject: Re: [PIG] namespaces and versions
>>
>>Sorry it's taken me so long to respond to this. I want to be sure I
>>understand the scenario Ray is setting up. From what I gather from the
>>final paragraph, there is a concern that a single schema may reference
>>another namespace more than once with different schema locations
>>attached to each reference. If we use METS as an example, there might be
>>a namespace declaration in a schema's root element that takes the form:
>>
>>xmlns:METS="http://www.loc.gov/METS/"
>>
>>and a corresponding location:
>>
>>xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.loc.gov/METS/
>>http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/mets.xsd"
>>
>>Later in the same schema there might be a conflicting reference to the
>>same namespace in an import statement:
>>
>><xs:import namespace="http://www.loc.gov/METS/"
>>schemaLocation="http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/version13/mets.xsd"/>
>>
>>Notice that while the namespace identifiers are the same, the locations
>>are not.
>>
>>I wasn't sure exactly how a validating parser would handle this, so I
>>created a test document and validated it using XMLSpy. It looks like the
>>XMLSchema designers (or perhaps XML parser developers) have already
>>considered this situation, because the referencing schema was invalid.
>>The validator recognized that there are conflicting definitions within
>>the same namespace. It appears as though we don't have to worry about
>>this specific situation.
>>
>>I took it a step further and created a schema (test1.xsd) that
>>references the METS namespace at the location
>>http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/mets.xsd. It also references another
>>schema, test2.xsd. test2.xsd also references the METS namespace, but at
>>the location http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/version13/mets.xsd. In
>>this hierarchical scenario, test1.xsd is invalid, again due to the
>>definition conflict. test2.xsd, which only sees one reference to the
>>METS namespace, is valid. To me, this does not seem to be problematic.
>>
>>I admit that I may not completely understand the situation outlined by
>>Ray, if so, can someone provide a concrete example of the problem?
>>Another caveat, I only had time to test this using one tool, XMLSpy,
>>other validating parsers may treat this situation differently.
>>
>>Chris Vicary
>>
>>
>>Ray Denenberg, Library of Congress wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>I just got subscribed to this list so pardon me if I'm out of context.
>>>
>>>Different schemas need different namespaces unless you can guarantee that
>>>any name occuring in both schemas will have a common definition. Thus if
>>>
>>>
>you
>
>
>>>move from one version to another, take MODS for example, and you change
>>>
>>>
>the
>
>
>>>definition of, say, titleInfo, then if you want to maintain the same
>>>namespace, you need to change the name of element titleInfo.
>>>
>>>I can't recall the exact example but in one of the MODS revisions we
>>>concluded that it was much more disruptive to change the element names
>>>
>>>
>(e.g.
>
>
>>>titleInfo --> newTitleInfo) than to change the namespace.
>>>
>>>A generic namespace with different locations doesn't get around this. You
>>>cannot guarantee that sometime in the future some third schema won't
>>>reference names from two different schemas with the same namespace.  When
>>>that happens, if the reference an element that has different definitions
>>>
>>>
>in
>
>
>>>the two schemas, you'd be in trouble.
>>>
>>>--Ray
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>--
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>Christopher Vicary: (352)392-9020 ext. 323
>>e-mail: [log in to unmask]
>>fax:    (352)392-9185
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>
>
>

--
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Christopher Vicary: (352)392-9020 ext. 323
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
fax:    (352)392-9185
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
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