[tdwg-tapir] Output model definition and mixed name spaces.

[Roger Hyam]

Hi Everyone,

In the few days between Christmas and New Year I am doing some thinking 
about architecture and the general problem of validating (controlling) 
data alongside using a more RDF based approach. This is an open world / 
closed world problem really but relates to Tapir as follows. Suppose I 
want to specify an output model like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf = "http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
         xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
         xmlns:rdfs="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#"
         xmlns:vCard = "http://www.w3.org/2001/vcard-rdf/3.0#">
<rdf:Description> 
<dc:creator>              
 <rdf:Description rdf:about = "http://qqqfoo.com/staff/corky" >
  <rdfs:label> Corky Crystal </rdfs:label>
  <vCard:FN> Corky Crystal </vCard:FN>
  <vCard:N rdf:parseType="Resource">
    <vCard:Family> Crystal </vCard:Family>
    <vCard:Given>  Corky </vCard:Given>
    <vCard:Other>  Jacky </vCard:Other>
    <vCard:Prefix> Dr </vCard:Prefix>
  </vCard:N>
  <vCard:BDAY> 1980-01-01 </vCard:BDAY>
 </rdf:Description>
</dc:creator>
</rdf:Description> 
</rdf:RDF>

This is taken from: http://dublincore.org/documents/dcq-rdf-xml/#sec3 
and is a good example or using a mix of 'other' vocabularies to describe 
something. DublinCore and vCard are pretty standard and should really 
not be re-invented.

I can't see how to define this structure in a simple XML Schema. It only 
allows a single target namespace so one needs to have at least 4 XSD 
documents (1 + 3 imported) to define this tightly. Here is an example of 
how to do this kind of thing:

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-tipschnm.html

We have the additional problem that there aren't actual public XML 
Schema definitions of these things so one would have to make up schemas 
defining the elements used. It all gets quite horrible.

Does the subset of XML Schema in Tapir support imports?

Tapir has the intention of combining separate 'concepts' (which implies 
different namespaces) into a single output model but do the concepts all 
have to be mapped into a single namespace to make the thing workable?

I may be missing something obvious with XML Schema or Tapir (or both) in 
which case I would be grateful if some one could set me right. I will 
blame it all on an excess of rich food and red wine over the past few days.

Many thanks for your thoughts.

Happy New Year,

Roger

-- 

-------------------------------------
 Roger Hyam
 Technical Architect
 Taxonomic Databases Working Group
-------------------------------------
 http://www.tdwg.org
 roger at tdwg.org
 +44 1578 722782
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