Re: [ubl-dev] Details on the Methodology

[Anne Hendry <anne.hendry@sun.com>]

Hi Ken, Tom,

Sorry for the delayed response, but many people are away due to the 
holidays.

Regarding your request to include information on how the model
is transformed into schemas, we can look into providing this info in the
final release either in the NDR document, or in the FAQ, or perhaps
in the section on schema generation in the main UBL document.  For
Beta there is a bit of information on this in Appendix D of the main
document in the section that describes the UBLish tool - the tool built
to generate the Beta schemas from the spreadsheets according to the
NDRs.  While there is nothing there as concise as what you're requesting,
the use of UBLish+extension gives more information on what went into the
creation of schema for each type, as described in this appendix.

Regarding the use (or not) of xsd:choice, I do recall several discussions
on this, but don't recall the details of the final decision.   There is the
intention, for the final UBL release, to flesh out the rules checklist
with additional information on each rule.  I can bring this question
and your other comment (on splitting the document) to the attention
of the NDR team.  Their next meeting is this coming Wednesday.  

Thanks for your feedback on this release.

-Anne


Sall, Ken wrote:

> Tim, Tom, et al,
>
>      Tom Gaven>  I also think the General XSD Rules section of  the Naming and
>     Design rules document could be split into 2 sections.
>     Section 1.  From the perspective of the UBL 'process'
>     Section 2.  From the perspective of implementors extending the UBL
>     schemas.
>      
>     I agree that the document should be split. On a related point, I
>     posted a message just before Christmas [1] requesting that the
>     general algorithm used in the spreadsheet be stated in English in
>     the NDR document, as Eve Maler once did. Only response I saw was
>     from Joe Chiusano (thanks, Joe).
>      
>     Tom Gaven> [GSX8, xsd:choice element MUST NOT be used]
>      
>     I really cannot understand why UBL forbids xsd:choice. Aside from
>     the fact that even DTDs permit choices, there are many
>     applications in which a content model must reflect a choice. For
>     example, suppose a government form allows the user to include
>     either a TIN or SSN for identification purposes, or another
>     application allows one of 4 parameters for a search. How can we
>     possibly create UBL-compliant XSDs that meet our business needs
>     with such a restriction on content models? We would be forced to
>     create redundant schema that differ only in such choices, an
>     obvious maintenance headache.
>      
>     [1] http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/ubl-dev/200312/msg00005.html
>      
>     Ken Sall, SiloSmashers
>     [also GSA e-Gov Initiative, Integrated Acquisition Environment PMO]
>      
>