assembly metadata

["Bob Stayton" <bobs@sagehill.net>]

I'm following up on my action item to initiate a discussion of metadata in assembly. Here are the minutes from the last meeting:

 

--------------------------------------------------------------

Scott raised the issue of adding info to module and other
assembly elements to support metadata.  Norm had
added info in order to hold a title that would override
the title in the resource it pointed to. Bob objected
to using info for override content as well as
metadata for assembly elements.  It was agreed that
they need to be differentiated.

----------------------------------------------------------------

 

I'll start the discussion by suggesting that we add an info element, but document it as holding information to describe the current assembly-level element, not the element pointed to.  I would also suggest adding another element, perhaps named <override>, whose purpose is to contain content that is to override the content of the element pointed to.   So if you want a new title to replace the title in a topic, you would put that title into a module's override element.

 

<assembly>

  <info>may contain author, revhistory, etc. to this assembly element</info>

  <resources>

    <info>may contain information on who maintains the resource list, etc.</info>

    <resource ...>

      <info>although resource is normally an empty element, it could contain an optional info element</info>

    </resource>

    ...

  </resources>

  <structure>

    <info>contains metadata about this structure element</info>

    <module>

      <info>contains metadata about this module element</info>

      <override>

        <title>This title overrides the title in the resource that this module points to</title>

        <pubdate>This pubdate overrides that in the topic's info element, if it has one.</pubdate>

        ...

      </override>

    </module>

  </structure>

</assembly>

Here some suggestions for discussion:

 

1. Permit <info> on any element in an assembly.

 

2.  Define the content of info like the DocBook 5 info element.

 

3.  An info element in <structure> can contribute to the output, just like the info element on the root element of a document.

 

4. An info element in any other assembly element generally does not contribute to the output, although I'm sure there are cases where it could.

 

5.  Permit <override> only on <module>.

 

6.  Define the content of <override> to be only those elements that make sense to be overridden.  Not sure what that list is, though.

 

7. Any element in <override> is merged with the content that the module points to, and overrides it if the corresponding element exists in the resource.

 

I don't much like the name <override>, so I'm open to suggestions.

 

 

Bob Stayton
Sagehill Enterprises
bobs@sagehill.net