Re: [ubl-dev] UUID

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

I'm sorry I missed this question earlier, but 
when I filed my message from today a moment ago 
the subject line of your message jumped out at me.

At 2006-08-22 14:29 +0300, Juha Ikävalko wrote:
>I got a question what is the purpose of UUID in 
>UBL documents? Definition says "A 
>computer-generated universally unique identifier 
>(UUID) for the Order instance".

That definition is all we have to work with ... I 
noticed it when I was answering Gil's question.

>My conclusion: ID identifies the order on the 
>business level and UUID identifies an order 
>message instance on the technical level.

I agree.

>Thus, if a seller is not able to receive the 
>order message at the first attempt, a buyer 
>sends a new order message with same ID

I agree.

>but different UUID.

That I'm not sure of.  What the definition 
doesn't clarify is the scope of 
"universally".  Is that a cross-document context 
or a cross-system context or a global 
context?  The answer to that provides guidance to 
the nature of the identifier one uses.

Lexically, UBL 2.0 defines this as a normalized string.

My gut feel is that it is a cross-document 
context, and I see a use for ID/IDREF concepts 
for extensions.  Without guidance from other 
UBL'ers, I would have no qualms using a simple name token for this.

If the answer is a cross-system context, then I 
would probably combine the document number with 
line number, assuming that if the document changes it gets a new number.

If the answer is a global context, then I would 
probably use a URN and manage my use of the URN 
value space somewhere in my system ... the URN 
ensures the global uniqueness if you use a 
registered domain, and I happen to have an ISBN 
publisher's prefix I can use for this.  A URI 
based on URL syntax would work as well and one can use their domain.

Does anyone have insight on the scope of "universally" in the UBL definition?

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

--
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