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Subject: RE: [ubl] Code list discussion so far


At ACORD we also have this same problem. We have taken a slightly
different approach for our schemas based upon our membership. I don't
think we have a perfect solution but it looks like it might work. We did
sort of a combination of items 1 and 3.

First a couple of differences in our approach that I think are
important. ACORD's members were split in their desire to have or not
have the schema validate code values. So we produce schemas that support
both of these scenarios. I'll explain more below. The other decision we
made was that only ACORD owned lists would be full enumerated and would
be of a different type (using QName) while the external lists would just
be defined as token. We went with token because not all the values would
fit the XML name requirements. We also choose this path for what we
considered copyright issues and management. We didn't want to get into
the business of publishing or managing someone else's lists.

So item 3 is sort of like our split between internal and external lists.


To handle our need for codes or no codes we used redefine to handle
this. For every list (including the external ones) we create a unique
type and base it on toke or QName as appropriate. We then use redefine
to just redefine those code lists with our enumerated values. This has
the benefit of supporting our need for a schema with and without codes
and it puts just the code lists in a single file that can then be edited
directly to add company unique code values. If the members wanted they
could also enumerate the external code lists as well with this approach.

Once they edit this file, the members now have to keep it maintained and
up to date with our changes that come out every 6 months. This is
similar to your item 1. Not a pretty solution but it looks like it will
work for us.

Note that we preferred the use of redefine over allowing the use of
substitution groups.

I sure hope you guys come up with the perfect solution. No one is
completely happy with the solution we came up with but it seems to be
the best solution given curret constraints.

..dan


> -----Original Message-----
> From: jon.bosak@sun.com [mailto:jon.bosak@sun.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2005 1:49 PM
> To: ubl@lists.oasis-open.org
> Subject: [ubl] Code list discussion so far
> 
> Hello UBL TC,
> 
> We held the first of two discussions to resolve the code list
> issue this morning; the second of the two will take place Thursday
> afternoon (1 p.m. in Ottawa).  Preliminary outcomes are as
> follows.
> 
>  - There are serious use cases that require modifications to code
>    lists in the interval between official revisions of code lists.
>    This is especially true in the case of industry-specific code
>    lists.
> 
>  - Solutions that require the namespaces in the UBL schemas to be
>    changed when a code list is modified are very expensive.
> 
>  - There appear to be three ways to accomplish modifications to
>    UBL schemas without changing the namespaces:
> 
>    1. Users simply modify the file containing the code list while
>       leaving everything else alone.  This method is being used
>       successfully in Denmark.  Obviously we cannot prevent users
>       from doing this, and given a proper notification procedure,
>       it seems to work pretty well.
> 
>    2. We explicitly enable modifications to the code lists by
>       embedding a "substitution group hook" in the UBL schemas as
>       described by Tony Coates and Marty Burns.  While cleaner
>       from a conceptual point of view, we're finding it difficult
>       to see any big advantage of this approach over simply
>       swapping out one code list module and replacing it with
>       another one.  The basic notification and management issues
>       appear to be about the same.
> 
>    3. We take a radically different view of the problem by
>       distinguishing between two kinds of code lists:
> 
>       a. Code lists that define codes used only in UBL (status
>          codes, for example).  Such lists are typically
>          well-defined, are completely under our control, and are
>          not (or should not be) extensible.
> 
>       b. Code lists that are defined by outside agencies and
>          referenced in UBL.  These are conceptually distinct from
>          the first category even if some happen to be bundled into
>          the UBL package.
> 
>       Making this distinction would allow us to take two different
>       approaches to code list definition.  Code lists of the first
>       kind could be defined in schema modules using enumerations
>       just as we do in 1.0.  Code lists of the second kind could
>       be defined in XML instances of a standard code list schema,
>       with the codes of this kind declared as unrestricted
>       strings.  Ordinary XSD validation would be used for the
>       first kind of code list, just as in 1.0, whereas validation
>       of the second kind would typically take place in a second
>       validation phase using something like Schematron.
> 
>       Participants in the discussion noted the following points
>       regarding this third alternative:
> 
>        - Publishing standard code lists as instances of a standard
>          code list schema is much closer to the basic XML concept
>          than publishing code lists as schema fragments.  In fact,
>          the whole namespace problem we've been wrestling with
>          here can be seen as an artifact of the attempt to use
>          things that should change very rarely (schemas) to
>          publish things that people often want to modify (code
>          lists).  One result of this has been that instead of
>          recommending a standard for code lists using a standard
>          formalism (such as an XSD schema) we have been
>          recommending a template for code list schemas for which
>          there is no standard formalism, just a complex set of
>          prose descriptions supplemented by examples.  The code
>          list paper published in UBL 1.0 admits it to be
>          "desirable that the [code list] data model be expressed
>          in a machine readable form" but can do no more than to
>          place this desirable development in some distant future
>          where a formalism exists for doing so.  The definition of
>          a standard XML schema for code lists would solve this
>          simply by putting such a definition at the appropriate
>          conceptual level.
> 
>        - Defining codes as unrestricted strings would obviously
>          make it trivially easy to meet all the requirements for
>          ad hoc code list modification.  The tradeoff would be
>          that the code lists themselves could no longer be used to
>          directly drive XSD validation.  It is unlikely, however,
>          that any major user of the UBL schemas would be satisfied
>          with just a simple check against an enumeration before
>          entering the document into an accounting application; it
>          is much more likely that something like a Schematron
>          check would be performed following simple XSD validation.
>          This is in fact what is done in the Danish
>          implementations, and it more closely reflects an initial
>          premise of the UBL code list effort that most code list
>          validation would take place at the application level
>          (report of the NDRSC, 18 March 2002).
> 
>        - Post-schema validation appears to be less problematic
>          than what we're hearing from initiatives that are
>          attempting to use substitution groups.  We believe it to
>          be significant that this is the approach adopted for ISO
>          20022 (banking).
> 
>        - We could provide a mechanism (an XSLT transformation, for
>          example) that would take *any* code list published using
>          the standard code list schemas and generate code list
>          schema modules just like the ones we've included in UBL
>          1.0.  (The XSLT would, in effect, provide the missing
>          formalism needed to specify the construction of the
>          schema modules in a machine-readable way.)  In fact, we
>          could provide the modules so generated as part of the
>          release package together with instructions for validating
>          instances against these generated modules in a second XSD
>          pass, thus providing all of the advantages of validation
>          against enumerations while still allowing easy
>          modification of code lists.
> 
>        - In a separate decision, the TC decided this morning to
>          accept the UDT and CCT schema modules defined by
>          UN/CEFACT ATG2 rather than defining and maintaining our
>          own.  Those schema modules reference a few standard code
>          lists (currencies, language codes, units of measure, mime
>          media types) that would retain the old enumeration form.
>          As most real-world situations requiring code list
>          modification are encountered not with these very basic
>          standard lists but with industry-defined code lists, this
>          is not considered a problem.
> 
>        - Mark Crawford wished to be put on record as having
>          reservations about this approach for two reasons:
> 
>          1. The desirability of maintaining XSD validation of
>             codes, and
> 
>          2. The wish to maintain alignment with ATG2, which
>             intends to specify all code lists as schema modules.
>             It is recognized, however, that ATG2 does not have
>             customization as a goal, whereas we do (though to what
>             extent still remains to be determined).
> 
>        - To make this approach practical for users, it will be
>          necessary to provide documentation showing users how to
>          implement a post-schema code list validation phase using
>          Schematron.  Bryan Rasmussen has volunteered to create
>          this if his management will approve the work.
> 
> Everyone interested in this subject should be prepared to
> participate in tomorrow's follow-up discussion (1 p.m. Ottawa time
> Thursday 11 August at the usual UBL conference number).
> 
> Jon


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