Re: [Scrollkeeper-devel] Better internationalization support

[Dan M. <da...@ea...>]

> But I'm not clear where a series ID fits into the OMF
> metadata DTD.  If I understand you correctly, the same
> series ID would be applied to every version/language/format
> of a document in its history, including when it changes
> hands.  But the OMF <identifier> element is supposed to be
> unique to each document.

Right.  So I guess the URN would go in identifier.  This can be done
without any modification to the OMF I believe.  (Is a URN considered a
URL?  If not, I guess we should explicitly state that an identifier may be
a URN.)

eg:
<identifier>http://www.ldp.org/docs/howto/nfs</identifier>
<identifier>urn:blahblahblah</identifier>

If anybody replies to this, let's please start a new thread with a title
about URN's ;)

> I would propose instead using the OMF <relation> element,
> with its url attribute pointing to a series ID.  By that I
> mean define a seriesID using uuidgen as Dan suggests.  Then
> the OMF metadata for each document includes
> 
> <relation url="thisseriesUUID" status="omf-series-id"/>
> 
> This defines a relationship between this document and the
> series of which it is a part.  Then you could query an OMF
> metadata collection to select all documents that share the
> same relation element.  From that you could select specific
> alternate version/language/format documents.
> 
> Would this be a correct usage of the <relation> element?
> Would it meet the needs of a seriesID?

I think using a uuidgen code and putting it in RELATION is the way to
go.  (I was completely overlooking this element.)  I would propose
breaking RELATION into two attributes:  RELATION.identifier and
RELATION.seriesid.  The identifier attribute should follow the guidelines
of the IDENTIFIER element - it can point to any valid URL/URN.  The
seriesid is the document series id code, obtained from uuidgen.

It would look something like this:

-----
14.     Relation
        Label: RELATION
        Obligation: Optional
                RELATION.IDENTIFIER (Optional)
                RELATION.SERIESID (Optional)
        Maximum Occurrence: Repeatable

Description of the resource's relationship with other similar resources.  
RELATION.IDENTIFIER is a URL that points to the IDENTIFIER element of
another resource.  Each instance of RELATION with the RELATION.IDENTIFIER
attribute links the resource to other resources of similar domain or
style. RELATION.SERIESID is a string code which specifies various
instances of a document, such as various versions, formats, or
translations.  All documents which are related in these ways should have
the same RELATION.SERIESID.  No documents which do not belong to this
set should share the RELATION.SERIESID.
-----

I imagine somebody else on the list can write this more clearly.

BTW: Are any of the OMF maintainers on this list following this
thread?  It would be nice to hear your opinions.

Dan