[DDI-SRG] tomorrows agenda

[Joachim Wackerow]

some topics for 1
- HTML documentation: how should it be done for 3.1? With docflex? If 
yes, the DDI Alliance should get a license of the software.
- genericode: clarification needed for fixed field names in genericode 
file like "Code" and "CodeDescription" (documentation issue). Also I 
will provide a better genericode example for the documentation.

other topics
- review the allowed characters in a DDI URN
Background 1
DNS-based URN resolution can affect the allowed character set for DDI 
URN's. The dot character "." has the meaning of an hierarchical 
separator in DNS. It is in DNS the only character with a special 
meaning. It is used in DDI URN as separator between 
maintainable-object/id-of-maintained-object and 
contained-object/id-of-contained-object. Allowed alternatives to "." 
would be:
"+"  "," "-" "=" "@" ";" "$" "_" "!" "*" "'"
These characters are allowed in both the URN syntax and the query string 
of an URL. I think "+" would be a good alternate candidate.

Background 2
When we really want to be open for DNS-based URN resolution and want to 
support smooth transition between both worlds it can make sense to use 
the agency id (DDI domain name) as a hierarchical top level field in 
DNS. In the hierarchical DNS sense the following DNS name would make 
sense: OtherPartsOfDDIURN.3_1.gesis.de.ddi.urn.arpa.
It reads:
arpa is top level domain
urn is sub domain of arpa
ddi is sub domain of urn
...
This structure would support the hierarchical resolution system of DNS.

Background 3
BaseIDType in reusable
BaseIDType is a xs:string restricted by the regular expression
([A-Z]|[a-z]|\*|@|[0-9]|_|$|\-)*
The field documentation says: Valid characters include A-Z, a-z, @, 0-9,
_, -, $

Anyway, I'm wondering why are special characters ("*", "$", "@") 
necessary in an id. These characters have sometimes a special meaning in 
another environment (like URN resolution) and therefore can cause 
problems. Then they must be rewritten in another form and escaped. Are 
they really required?

I would suggest as allowed characters just A-Z, a-z, 0-9,
_, - with a starting letter in the ID.
as regexp: ([A-Z]|[a-z])+([A-Z]|[a-z]|[0-9]|_|\-)*

Achim


Wendy Thomas wrote:
> Two major items on the agenda:
> 
> 1: List of what corrections are being made for 3.1 final publication (if 
> approved), Other steps in that production. We will need to provide a 
> REALISTIC timeline for its publication during the meeting at IASSIST
> 
> 2: DDI 2.1 maintenance
> 
> Also, please let me know who will be at IASSIST and who will be at the 
> Expert Meeting on Monday May 25.
> 
> Wendy
> 
> Wendy L. Thomas                          Phone: +1 612.624.4389
> Data Access Core Director		 Fax:   +1 612.626.8375
> Minnesota Population Center              Email: wlt at pop.umn.edu
> University of Minnesota
> 50 Willey Hall
> 225 19th Avenue South
> Minneapolis, MN 55455
> _______________________________________________
> DDI-SRG mailing list
> DDI-SRG at icpsr.umich.edu
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E-mail: joachim.wackerow at gesis.org
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