StandardsRegExt: links to schemas

[Ray Plante]

Hi again,

Following up more on TCG review comments, we had a very good 
suggestion from Andreas Wicenec recommending that we not only make the 
human-readable standards document discoverable via this record but 
also the schema document.  Providing a link to an example instance is 
also suggested.  I want to propose a means for doing this and your 
feedback is requested.  In particular, if anyone thinks it is too late 
in the process to introduce additional elements into the schema.  

Here's an example of what I propose

  <schema namespace="http://www.ivoa.net/xml/SIA/v1.0">
    <locationURL>http://www.ivoa.net/xml/SIA/v1.0</location>
    <description>VOResource extension schema for registering SIA 
services</description>
    <example>http://rofr.ivoa.net/examples/SIA.xml</example>
  </schema>

Here are definition details:
  o  this would be part of a vstd:Standard resource type (and 
       thus inherited by vstd:ServiceStandard)
  o  the <schema> element would be optional and could appear multiple 
       times 
  o  the <schema> element could appear multiple times
  o  the namespace attribute and <locationURL> would be required
  o  the <description> element is optional
  o  the <example> element would be optional and could appear 
       multiple times

Note that some of our standards define multiple schemas (e.g. 
SimpleDALRegExt and RegistryInterface), thus the need for multiple 
occurances.  When we have multiple occurances, we need a way to 
distinguish between them:  the namespace attribute serves as the 
label, and the <description> element differentiates them for the human 
viewer.  Note that for IVOA schemas, the namespace and location are 
identical; however, this would not necessarily be true for non-IVOA 
schemas nor for working draft versions.

Note also that the schemas are not necessarily independent of each 
other; consequently, an example might well require or benefit from the 
use of multiple schemas.  The publisher can choose the most 
appropriate <schema> element to put the example into (or could even 
repeat the URL across multiple <schema> elements).

I made no attempt to identify what type of schema it is.  Doing so 
implies that we are supporting automated interpretation of the 
underlying documents.  I feel this would be too complicated to support 
without further work (and a clear use case).  The main use case we are 
targeting is human discovery of the schemas.  

I've attached the bit of XML that would be added to the 
StandardsRegExt schema to support this if you want to see the details.  
I've also appended a full example, StandardsRegExt.xml.

cheers,
Ray


      
  
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