A URN Namespace for OASIS
A namespace for OASIS to give its published documents names that do not change when the files move.
Best, K. and N. Walsh, "A URN Namespace for OASIS", RFC 3121, DOI 10.17487/RFC3121, June 2001, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3121>.
@misc{rfc3121,
series = {Request for Comments},
number = 3121,
howpublished = {RFC 3121},
publisher = {RFC Editor},
doi = {10.17487/RFC3121},
url = {https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3121},
author = {K. Best and N. Walsh},
title = {{A URN Namespace for OASIS}},
pagetotal = 7,
year = 2001,
month = jun,
} RFC text
Contents
Network Working Group K. Best
Request for Comments: 3121 OASIS, Inc.
Category: Informational N. Walsh
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
June 2001
A URN Namespace for OASIS
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This document describes a URN (Uniform Resource Name) namespace that
is engineered by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured
Information Standards (OASIS) for naming persistent resources
published by OASIS (such as OASIS Standards, XML (Extensible Markup
Language) Document Type Definitions, XML Schemas, Namespaces,
Stylesheets, and other documents).
1. Introduction
The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information
Standards (OASIS) produces many kinds of documents: specifications,
working drafts, technical resolutions, schemas, stylesheets, etc.
OASIS wishes to provide global, distributed, persistent, location-
independent names for these resources.
The Extensible Markup Language (XML) requires that all resources
provide a system identifier, which must be a URI, in addition to an
optional public identifier (which provides an alternate mechanism for
constructing identifiers) and many evolving specifications require
authors to identify documents by URI alone (XML Namespaces, XML
Schema, XSLT, etc.).
Motivated by these observations, OASIS would like to assign URNs to
some resources in order to retain unique, permanent location-
independent names for them.
This namespace specification is for a formal namespace.
2. Specification Template
Namespace ID:
"oasis" requested.
Registration Information:
Registration Version Number: 3
Registration Date: 2001-02-05
Declared registrant of the namespace:
Karl Best
OASIS - Organization for the Advancement of Structured
Information Standards
Post Office Box 455
Billerica, MA USA 01821
Phone: +1 (978) 667 5115
Declaration of structure:
The Namespace Specific String (NSS) of all URNs assigned by OASIS
will have the following hierarchical structure:
There are two branches at the top of the hierarchy: "names" and
"member".
The Names Hierarchy
The NSS in the names hierarchy begins with a document class
identifier. There are three classes of identifiers:
"specification", "tc", and "technical".
Specifications
The "specification" hierarchy is for OASIS Specifications. The
general structure of the NSS in the specification hierarchy has
the form:
urn:oasis:names:specification:{specification-id}
:{type}{:subtype}?:{document-id}
where "specification-id" is a unique identifier for the
specification, "type" identifies the document type (document,
schema, stylesheet, entity, xmlns, etc.), the optional
"subtype" provides additional information about the document
type (for example, stylesheet or schema language), and
"document-id" is a unique identifier for the document.
The Director of Technical Operations at OASIS assigns document
types, subtypes, and all unique identifiers.
Technical Committee Work Products
The "tc" hierarchy is for work products of OASIS Technical
Committees. The general structure of the NSS in the tc
hierarchy has the form:
urn:oasis:names:tc:{tc-id}:{type}{:subtype}?:{document-id}
where "tc-id" is a unique identifier for the Technical
Committee, and the remaining fields are assigned as per the
specification hierarchy.
Technical Papers
The "technical" hierarchy identifies legacy documents
(Technical Notes, Resolutions, Memoranda, and Research Papers).
The general structure of the NSS in the "technical" hierarchies
has the form:
urn:oasis:names:technical:{document-type}
:{document-id}:{amendment-id}
The document type is one of the following: "note",
"resolution", "memorandum", or "researchpaper".
The document and amendment identifiers are derived from the
legacy system for naming these documents. The document
identifier consists of a two digit year and a sequential
number, the amendment identifier is the year of the amendment.
The Members Hierarchy
The NSS in the members hierarchy begins with a unique member
identifier assigned by OASIS. The string following the member
identifier is opaque. For example:
urn:oasis:member:A00024:x
The member identifiers will be assigned by The Director of
Technical Operations at OASIS. The opaque string is defined by
the owner of the branch that begins with
"urn:oasis:member:{member-id}:".
Relevant ancillary documentation:
None
Identifier uniqueness considerations:
Identifier uniqueness will be enforced by the Director of
Technical Operations who assigns unique identifiers to all
documents identified by URN.
Identifier persistence considerations:
OASIS is committed to maintaining the accessibility and
persistence of all the resources that are assigned URNs.
Process of identifier assignment:
Assignment is limited to the owner and those authorities that are
specifically designated by the owner. OASIS will assign portions
of its namespace (specifically, those under the members hierarchy)
for assignment by other parties.
Process of identifier resolution:
The owner will distribute catalogs (OASIS TR9401 Catalogs) that
map the assigned URNs to resource identifiers (e.g., URLs). A
more interactive, online resolution system will also be deployed
in the near future.
The owner will authorize additional resolution services as
appropriate.
Rules for Lexical Equivalence:
URNs are lexically equivalent if they are lexically identical.
Conformance with URN Syntax:
No special considerations.
Validation mechanism:
None specified. The owner will publish OASIS TR9401 Catalogs.
The presence of a URN in a catalog indicates that it is valid.
Scope:
Global
3. Examples
The following examples are not guaranteed to be real. They are
listed for pedagogical reasons only.
urn:oasis:names:specification:docbook:dtd:xml:4.1.2
urn:oasis:names:tc:docbook:dtd:xml:docbook:5.0b1
urn:oasis:names:technical:memo:9502:1995
urn:oasis:member:A00024:x
4. Security Considerations
There are no additional security considerations other than those
normally associated with the use and resolution of URNs in general.
References
[1] Goldfarb, C. F., "ISO (International Organization for
Standardization) ISO 8879:1986(E) Information Processing -- Text
and Office Systems -- Standard Generalized Markup Language
(SGML)", 1986.
[2] W3C, XML WG, "Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0", February
1998, <http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml>.
[3] W3C, Namespaces WG, "Namespaces in XML", January 1999,
<http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names>.
[4] OASIS, Entity Mgmt. TC, "Entity Management: OASIS Technical
Resolution 9401:1997 (Amendment 2 to TR 9401)", January 1994,
<http://www.oasis-open.org/html/a401.htm>.
[5] Moats, R., "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, May 1997.
[6] Mealling, M. and R. Daniel, "URI Resolution Services Necessary
for URN Resolution", RFC 2483, January 1999.
Authors' Addresses
Karl Best
OASIS, Inc.
P.O. Box 455
Billerica, MA 01821
US
EMail: karl.best@oasis-open.org
Norman Walsh
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
One Network Drive
MS UBUR02-201
Burlington, MA 01803-0902
US
EMail: Norman.Walsh@East.Sun.COM
Full Copyright Statement
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001). All Rights Reserved.
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included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
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Acknowledgement
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Internet Society.
ISO Plain Language
On this page
§1Why OASIS Wants Names That Do Not Move
The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) produces many kinds of document: specifications, working drafts, technical resolutions, schemas and stylesheets. OASIS wishes to provide global, distributed, persistent, location-independent names for these resources.
The reason given is that the Extensible Markup Language (XML) requires all resources to provide a system identifier, which must be a URI, in addition to an optional public identifier that provides an alternate mechanism for constructing identifiers, and many evolving specifications require authors to identify documents by URI alone, among them XML Namespaces, XML Schema and XSLT. Motivated by these observations, OASIS would like to assign URNs to some resources in order to retain unique, permanent, location-independent names for them.
The namespace specification is for a formal namespace. The namespace identifier requested is oasis. The registration information gives registration version number 3 and a registration date of 2001-02-05, with Karl Best of OASIS as the declared registrant of the namespace.
Documents are published on the Web and later move, get revised, or are replaced. A URN is a permanent label that says which document it is without saying where to fetch it, and OASIS wanted one for everything it publishes.
§2The Shape of the OASIS Namespace
The namespace specific string of every URN OASIS assigns has a hierarchical structure, and there are two branches at the top of the hierarchy: names and member.
The names branch begins with a document class identifier, and there are three classes. The specification hierarchy is for OASIS specifications, and the general structure of its namespace specific string is urn:oasis:names:specification:{specification-id}:{type}{:subtype}?:{document-id}, where the specification identifier is unique for the specification, the type identifies the document type such as document, schema, stylesheet, entity or xmlns, the optional subtype provides additional information about the document type, for example the stylesheet or schema language, and the document identifier is unique for the document. The tc hierarchy is for work products of OASIS Technical Committees, and has the form urn:oasis:names:tc:{tc-id}:{type}{:subtype}?:{document-id}, where the committee identifier is unique to the Technical Committee and the remaining fields are assigned as in the specification hierarchy. The technical hierarchy identifies legacy documents, namely Technical Notes, Resolutions, Memoranda and Research Papers, and has the form urn:oasis:names:technical:{document-type}:{document-id}:{amendment-id}, where the document type is one of note, resolution, memorandum or researchpaper. The document and amendment identifiers are derived from the legacy system for naming these documents: the document identifier consists of a two digit year and a sequential number, and the amendment identifier is the year of the amendment.
The members branch begins with a unique member identifier assigned by OASIS, and the string following the member identifier is opaque. The example given is urn:oasis:member:A00024:x. The member identifiers are assigned by the Director of Technical Operations at OASIS, and the opaque string is defined by the owner of the branch that begins with urn:oasis:member:{member-id}:.
On assignment and resolution, the memo says identifier uniqueness will be enforced by the Director of Technical Operations, who assigns unique identifiers to all documents identified by a URN, and that OASIS is committed to maintaining the accessibility and persistence of all the resources that are assigned URNs. Assignment is limited to the owner and those authorities specifically designated by the owner, though OASIS will assign portions of its namespace, specifically those under the members hierarchy, for assignment by other parties. For resolution, the owner will distribute catalogs, OASIS TR9401 Catalogs, that map the assigned URNs to resource identifiers such as URLs, and a more interactive, online resolution system will also be deployed in the near future; the owner will authorize additional resolution services as appropriate. URNs in this namespace are lexically equivalent if they are lexically identical, conformance with URN syntax needs no special consideration, and the validation mechanism is the published catalog, since the presence of a URN in a catalog indicates that it is valid. The scope of the namespace is global.
Every name starts with the same prefix and then says what kind of thing it names: an OASIS specification, a committee's working document, an older note or resolution, or a member. A single office inside OASIS hands out the numbers, and catalogs map each name to the address the document can be fetched from.
- urn:oasis the oasis namespace
- names documents published by OASIS
- specification OASIS specifications
- specification-id then type, optional subtype, document-id
- tc Technical Committee work products
- tc-id then type, optional subtype, document-id
- technical legacy notes, resolutions, memoranda and research papers
- document-type then document-id and amendment-id
- specification OASIS specifications
- member members of OASIS
- member-id then an opaque string set by the branch owner
- names documents published by OASIS
| Branch | What it names | Parts after the branch |
|---|---|---|
| specification | OASIS specifications | specification-id, type, optional subtype, document-id |
| tc | Technical Committee work products | tc-id, type, optional subtype, document-id |
| technical | Legacy notes, resolutions, memoranda and research papers | document-type, document-id, amendment-id |
| member | OASIS members | member-id, then an opaque string |
§3Example URNs
The memo gives four examples, and says they are not guaranteed to be real and are listed for pedagogical reasons only.
urn:oasis:names:specification:docbook:dtd:xml:4.1.2names a specification with the specification identifier docbook, document type dtd, subtype xml and document identifier 4.1.2.urn:oasis:names:tc:docbook:dtd:xml:docbook:5.0b1names a Technical Committee work product of the docbook committee, with document type dtd, subtype xml and document identifier docbook:5.0b1.urn:oasis:names:technical:memo:9502:1995names a legacy memorandum, with document identifier 9502 and amendment year 1995.urn:oasis:member:A00024:xnames a member identifier with an opaque trailing string.
The examples show the same pieces in different orders: which kind of thing is named, which document it belongs to, and then the identifier of the document itself. The trailing part of a member name is whatever its owner wants it to be.
urn:oasis:names:specification:docbook:dtd:xml:4.1.2
urn:oasis:names:tc:docbook:dtd:xml:docbook:5.0b1
urn:oasis:names:technical:memo:9502:1995
urn:oasis:member:A00024:x§4Security Considerations
The memo says there are no additional security considerations other than those normally associated with the use and resolution of URNs in general.
Nothing extra. The usual care needed when looking up and using a URN applies.