Re: [ubl] Agenda for Atlantic UBL TC call 5 September 2007

["G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@CraneSoftwrights.com>]

At 2007-09-04 13:05 -0700, jon.bosak@sun.com wrote:
>AGENDA FOR ATLANTIC UBL TC MEETING
>15:00 - 17:00 UTC WEDNESDAY 5 SEPTEMBER 2007
>...
>    ACTION: MG to investigate the impact of GKH's proposed
>    namespace-based versioning mechanism on the NDR.  AGREED that
>    if no critical problems are found in this investigation, we
>    will adopt GKH's proposal for namespace-based versioning, as
>    contained in
>
>       http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/document.php?document_id=23654
>
>       ACTION (8/15): JB to begin an email conversation regarding
>       the proposed namespace-based versioning mechanism with
>       selected people outside the UBL TC, starting with the Danish
>       government (PB), HL7 (Ann Wrightson), and ACORD; to include
>       GKH, MG, TonyC, BH, and ZR.
>
>          Status report.  Are we reaching closure on this?

The ball is in my court, Jon ... the cacophony of "namespaces are too 
confusing for implementers!!" is deafening and coming from all 
directions, both inside the committee and out:  UBL TC, ACORD, UN/CEFACT.

I'm going to experiment with my version-specific filters on instances 
that have a single set of unchanging UBL 2.0 namespaces for all 
information items of all minor versions.  If the filters work, then 
we direct the conversation to a consideration of the standalone 
instance not exposing history in the information item labels but that 
a version-specific filter can modify any given instance into an 
instance conforming to the document model of the given version.

If this works then we still get a heterogeneous network supporting 
different minor versions of UBL 2 instances, but all implementations 
are dealing with the one set of namespaces as published in UBL 2.0 
and persistent through all minor versions.

The differences cannot be established by inspection, only by filtering.

I'm not sure if I'll have the filters running for Stockholm, but I'll 
try.  I'll make the UBL 2.0 filters available on Crane's web site, at 
least using XSLT and possibly also using Python to give 
implementations a choice of free software (or they could write their 
own).  These filters would transform an instance of any minor version 
of UBL into an instance of UBL 2.0.  I'll then release a set of UBL 
2.1 filters, a set of UBL 2.2 filters, and so on so that any 
implementation level can be supported.

I haven't abandoned the email discussion thread on this ... I'll 
still do add this input to the thread when I've done the 
experimentation and published my results.

I feel like I'm flogging a dead horse of an idea, and I'm willing to 
accept that I need to let it go.

If, though, I find I really cannot do it with a single set of 
namespaces, then I'll have to try and find more justification for my 
original approach and breath some life into it.

. . . . . . . . . . . Ken

--
Upcoming public training: XSLT/XSL-FO Sep 10, UBL/code lists Oct 1
World-wide corporate, govt. & user group XML, XSL and UBL training
RSS feeds:     publicly-available developer resources and training
G. Ken Holman                 mailto:gkholman@CraneSoftwrights.com
Crane Softwrights Ltd.          http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/o/
Box 266, Kars, Ontario CANADA K0A-2E0    +1(613)489-0999 (F:-0995)
Male Cancer Awareness Jul'07  http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/o/bc
Legal business disclaimers:  http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/legal