W3C

xml:id Requirements

W3C Working Draft 6 August 2003

This version:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/WD-xml-id-req-20030806
Latest version:
http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-id-req
Editor:
Jonathan Marsh, Microsoft <jmarsh@microsoft.com>

Abstract

Since XML 1.0, the ability of processors to identify an XML element by an explicit identifier ("IDness") has depended upon validation. Both DTDs and [XML Schema] have mechanisms to identify the structures containing unique identifiers. But neither XML Schema nor DTDs are required by all processors. A common processor type does not perform validation, nor fetch external resources for the purpose of acertaining whether the document contains unique identifiers.

This document sets out the requirements for a mechanism for determining "IDness" applicable to all classes of XML processors.

Status of this Document

This document is a working draft prepared by the W3C XML Core Working Group as part of the XML Activity. As a first draft, it does not necessarily represent a consensus of the members of the XML Core WG.

By publishing this draft, the XML Core WG requests comments from interested parties. Comments should be sent to public-xml-id@w3.org, which is an automatically and publicly archived email list.

Documentation of intellectual property possibly relevant to this specification may be found at the Working Group's public IPR disclosure page.

This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at http://www.w3.org/TR/.

Publication as a working draft a does not imply endorsement by the W3C Membership. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than 'work in progress.'

Table of Contents

1 Introduction
2 Requirements

Appendices

A References


1 Introduction

The [XML ID TAG finding] summarizes the problem, and sketches the solution space, of applying ID semantics universally for XML processors. This document lists requirements guiding the development of such a mechanism.

[Definition: The key words must, must not, required, shall, shall not, should, should not, recommended, may, and optional in this specification are to be interpreted as described in [IETF RFC 2119].]

2 Requirements

Appendix

A References

IETF RFC 2119
RFC 2119: Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels. Internet Engineering Task Force, 1997. (See http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt.)
XML ID TAG finding
Chris Lilley. Draft Technical Advisory Group Finding How should the problem of identifying ID semantics in XML languages be addressed in the absence of a DTD?. World Wide Web Consortium, 2003. (See http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/xmlIDsemantics-32.html.)
XML Schema
Henry Thompson et al., editors. XML Schema Part 1. World Wide Web Consortium, 2001. (See http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-1.)
XPath
James Clark, Steve DeRose, editors. XML Path Language (XPath). World Wide Web Consortium, 1999. (See http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-1.)
XPointer Framework
Paul Grosso, Eve Maler, Jonathan Marsh, and Norman Walsh, editors. XPointer Framework. World Wide Web Consortium, 2001. (See http://www.w3.org/TR/xptr-framework.)