RE: [ubl] Discussion of substitution groups

From
CRAWFORD, Mark <>
Date
2005-07-20T10:52:19+00:00
ID
Thread
RE: [ubl] Discussion of substitution groups
Title: Re: [ubl] Discussion of substitution groups

>In transactional messaging, there can be the 
risk of legal consequences if 
you don't know exactly which version of a 
message Schema applies to an 
message instance, since each Schema 
version is like a different version of 
a contract, and you introduce a 
business risk of you decide do something 
under the terms of a contract, 
without checking which version of the 
contract actually 
applies.

>The upshot is that each message instance really should 
identify which 
Schema, and which version of that Schema, applies to 
it.  The most popular 
way to do this is to have a unique namespace 
for each version of each 
Schema.  The way I like to do it, 
sometimes in addition to the namespace 
technique, is to provide 
top-level attributes which have a fixed value 
that is required to 
appear, and which identify the Schema and version.  
Sometimes 
people try to use the 'schemaLocation' to provide Schema 
version 
information, but this is a fragile technique that I don't 
recommend in 
general.

Remember - ATG is just not using minor 
versioning of the namespaces.  They continue to use minor versioning of the 
schema.  The namespaces is only a conceptual holder used to differentiate 
conflicting names.