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Non-NIEM Details types in NIEM Namespaces

2011-09-30
2012-09-22
  • Kenneth Sall

    Kenneth Sall - 2011-09-30

    When using NIEM dictionaries, numerous artificial Details types appear such as
    scr:AlertDetails and scr:AddressDetails in the default dictionary example.
    Although generated code does define these pseudo-types, it seems misleading to
    use the NIEM namespace prefix (e.g., "scr") since they are not part of NIEM.
    Shouldn't they be in an exchange or extension namespace with a different
    prefix? Shouldn't the GUI make it clear what is actually in NIEM vs. what is
    an artificial construct?

     
  • drrwebber

    drrwebber - 2011-09-30

    We can look at an enhancement to the dictionary UI - to bubble help some
    specific guidance text for users. This is not really NIEM specific - with any
    dictionary object - users can potentially rename the parent node once inserted
    into their XML exchange structure.

    The intent of these items that end in Details suffix is that users will do
    exactly that - because they really need to set the context of their use of the
    object within their own exchange. The NIEM schema of course hides this within
    the XSD schema type and ref mechanisms.

    So - its debatable if using the actual NIEM namespace is clear or not -
    certainly all the components contained within the Details parent are - and it
    was directly derived from a XSD schema complexType definition within that
    namespace.

    We are planning a new Dictionary Evaluation Tool - similar to the Template
    Evaluation Tool - that will highlight much more aspects of dictionaries. This
    naming need is really only the tip of the iceberg - there are all kinds of
    conflicts, anomalies and duplicates/omissions within current NIEM and other
    domain dictionaries - that hopefully we can guide people around with this
    reporting tool. Look for this in the next CAM v2.2 release. And of course we'd
    be happy for more suggestions as to things this dictionary evaluator may spot
    - the more you can look the more you find!

     

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