Code list metadata

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

Fellow UBL TC members,

Today I'm struggling with list-level metadata for our code lists for UBL 2.1.

In UBL 2.0, we oriented our list-level metadata around UN/CEFACT for 
those code lists that matched the enumerations baked into the 
schemas.  Consider, for example, the Units of Measure list, UN/ECE 
Recommendation 20:

http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.0-update/cl/gc/cefact/UnitOfMeasureCode-2.0.gc
   <Identification>
      <ShortName>UnitOfMeasureCode</ShortName>
      <LongName xml:lang="en">Unit Of Measure</LongName>
      <LongName Identifier="listID">UN/ECE rec 20</LongName>
      <Version>Revision 4</Version>
      <CanonicalUri>urn:un:unece:uncefact:codelist:specification:66411</CanonicalUri>
      <CanonicalVersionUri>urn:un:unece:uncefact:codelist:specification:66411:2001-update</CanonicalVersionUri>
      <LocationUri>http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.0-update/cl/gc/cefact/UnitOfMeasureCode-2.0.gc</LocationUri>
      <Agency>
         <LongName xml:lang="en">United Nations Economic Commission 
for Europe</LongName>
         <Identifier>6</Identifier>
      </Agency>
   </Identification>

I cannot see where the version information came from in the 
schema.  And I note two concepts of version:  "Revision 4" (in 
<Version>) and "2001-update" (in <CanonicalVersionUri>).

For UN/ECE Recommendation 21, the Packaging Type list, we used UBL metadata:

http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.0-update/cl/gc/default/PackagingTypeCode-2.0.gc
   <Identification>
      <ShortName>PackagingTypeCode</ShortName>
      <LongName xml:lang="en">Packaging Type</LongName>
      <LongName Identifier="listID">UN/ECE rec 21</LongName>
      <Version>Revision 5</Version>
      <CanonicalUri>urn:oasis:names:specification:ubl:codelist:gc:PackagingTypeCode</CanonicalUri>
      <CanonicalVersionUri>urn:oasis:names:specification:ubl:codelist:gc:PackagingTypeCode-2.0-update</CanonicalVersionUri>
      <LocationUri>http://docs.oasis-open.org/ubl/os-UBL-2.0-update/cl/gc/default/PackagingTypeCode-2.0.gc</LocationUri>
      <Agency>
         <LongName xml:lang="en">United Nations Economic Commission 
for Europe</LongName>
         <Identifier>6</Identifier>
      </Agency>
   </Identification>

In both cases I think the version information should not include the 
word "Revision", so I'm suggesting changing that.

What do we do about identification?  Both code lists come from UN/ECE 
recommendations.  One would think their identification would be very 
similar.  I cannot correlate on the UN/ECE web site the UN/CEFACT 
schema reference to "66411" for the Units of Measure.  Is there a 
similar reference for the Packaging Type?

Should we use the UN/ECE format for both?  If so, for others that did 
not have that format in UBL 2.0?

Or should we use the UBL format for all code lists now that we don't 
have any UN/CEFACT XSD files with enumerations?  Then we would change 
the identification approach for the other code list files that used 
to come from XSD enumerations.

There are no genericode files yet published on the UN/ECE web site, 
so we have to create our own.

Thank you for any discussion and guidance on this subject.  I've got 
the mechanics all working, but I need help to know what should go 
into these files.

. . . . . . . . Ken

p.s. today I put together a utility to convert CSV files into 
genericode files, so anyone finding code list information should be 
able to easily create CSV without needing to think about the XML

--
Contact us for world-wide XML consulting and instructor-led training
Free 5-hour lecture: http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/links/udemy.htm
Crane Softwrights Ltd.            http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/o/
G. Ken Holman                   mailto:gkholman@CraneSoftwrights.com
Google+ profile: https://plus.google.com/116832879756988317389/about
Legal business disclaimers:    http://www.CraneSoftwrights.com/legal