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The question (see issue qnameAsId-18) that prompted this finding was "are QNames acceptable replacements for URIs as identifiers within specifications?" This finding documents the TAG's opinion on the use of QNames as identifiers.
This document has been developed for discussion by the W3C Technical Architecture Group.
This document is the work of the editor. It is a draft with no official standing. It does not necessarily represent the consensus opinion of the TAG.
Comments may be directed to the W3C TAG mailing list www-tag@w3.org (archive).
Publication of this document by W3C indicates no endorsement by W3C or the W3C Team, or any W3C Members.
1 QNames as
Identifiers
2 QNames in XML
2.1 Prefixes
in Other Contexts
3 QNames in Other
Specifications
4 Architectural Observations
5 Architectural
Recommendations
6 References
This finding is concerned with the use of qualified names (QNames) as identifiers. That is, the contexts in which a colonized name can be understood to be a QName.
A related TAG issue, rdfmsQnameUriMapping-6, concerns the mechanism by which one can (or can not) construct a URI for a particular QName. We do not consider that issue in this finding.
Qualified names were introduced by [XML Namespaces]. They were defined for element and attribute names (only) and provide a mechanism for concisely identifying a URI/local-name pair. For example, in the following document:
<?xml version='1.0'?> <doc xmlns:x="http://example.com/ns/foo"> <x:p/> </doc>
The QName "x:p
" is a concise, unambiguous
name for the URI/local-name pair
{"http://example.com/ns/foo", "p"}
.
When used solely in element and attribute names, all QNames are identified by the XML processor and can logically be replaced by the URI/local-name pair they identify.
At the request of the XML Schema Working Group, the XML Core Working Group is producing an erratum to [XML Namespaces] to clarify the meaning of colons in other contexts.
In particular, this erratum makes it clear that entity names, processing instruction targets, and notation names are not QNames and they may not include any colons. Documents that do not satisfy this constraint are not namespace well-formed. Furthermore, the values of attributes of type ID, IDREF(S), ENTITY(IES), and NOTATION are also forbidden from containing colons. Documents that do not satisfy this constraint are not namespace valid.
A colon that introduces a namespace validity or namespace well-formedness error into a document does not introduce a QName. In other words, the term "identifier" in this finding is not related to XML identifiers of type ID since they cannot be QNames.
Other specifications, starting with [XSLT], have taken QNames and employed them in contexts other than element and attrbiute names. Specifically, QNames have been used in attribute values and element content.
For example, in the following document,
"x:p
" is understood to be a QName even though
it appears in an attribute value, not an element or
attribute name.
<?xml version='1.0'?> <xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:x="http://example.com/ns/foo" version="1.0"> <xsl:output method="html"/> <xsl:template match="x:p"> <p> <xsl:apply-templates/> </p> </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet> </doc>
In attribute values and element content, QNames are most often used to identify a particular element type; they are, in principle, using QNames as they were intended.
Other specifications use QNames as shortcuts for unique identifiers derived from a URI/local-name pair that have no relationship to element or attribute types.
The TAG makes the following observations:
Whatever the architectural ramifications of using QNames as identifiers in contexts other than XML element and attribute names, it is already established practice.
It is simply not practical to suggest that this usage should be forbidden on architectural grounds.
Using QNames in untyped (#PCDATA
or
xs:string
) attribute values or element
content places an additional burden on the processor
that was not anticipated by [XML
Namespaces].
If QNames are only used in element and attribute names, the processor can fully resolve all of the prefixes as it parses. This gives it the freedom to discard the prefix-to-URI mappings when they go out of scope. A serializer, presented with an object model that conforms to [XML Namespaces] can manufacture new prefixes on the fly. (In practice, users expect most prefixes to be preserved through transformations, so things aren't quite this simple for most developers, but this is still theoretically the case.)
As soon as QNames may appear in element or attribute values, the processor must retain all of the prefix-to-URI mappings (and any API must expose these mappings). This is necessary because some subsequent micro-parser, in the course of examining some content, may encounter a token that it recognizes as a QName and need to find its URI/local-name.
In our previous XSL example, from the perspective of
the XML processor, there are no qualified names that
use the x:
prefix. However, when the
XSL processor examines the match
attribute on xsl:template, it must be able to resolve
the x:
prefix.
QNames in attribute values or element content by
themselves, in other words, in contexts that could
be typed as xs:QName
([XML Datatypes]) in a schema, could
in principle be identified by the schema processor.
For example, given this example:
<elem ref="data:myInteger"/>
If schema validation reveals that the following component applies to this instance of the elem element:
<xs:complexType name="elemType"> <xs:complexContent> <xs:restriction base="xs:anyType"> <xs:attribute name="ref" type="xs:QName"/> </xs:restriction> </xs:complexContent> </xs:complexType>
The schema processor can determine that
data:myInteger
is a QName and must
therefore be a concise name for the URI/local-name pair
consisting of the in-scope namespace URI for the prefix
data
and the local-name
myInteger
.
Perhaps the most common use of QNames in untyped values at the moment is in locations where XPath expressions may occur. As XPath is reused in more and more specifications, it may eventually be reasonable to define an XPath data type to identify all of these values in a way that makes them accessible to higher-level parsers.
The TAG recognizes that there are pragmatic reasons why it is desireable to provide the same kind of URI/local-name shortcuts that QNames provide for element and attribute names in other contexts. In addition, the practice is already well established. Therefore, the TAG accepts that it is reasonable to use QNames in this way.
The TAG encourages designers to consider the ramifications of their use of QNames carefully. In particular, it makes the following recommendations.
Specifications should not introduce QNames into mixed content or attribute values with untyped string content.
Specifications should not introduce union types that
include xs:QName
as a possible
component.
Specifications should not use tokens that are syntactically QNames (that match the QName production) unless they are also semantically QNames.
Specifications describing an XML language must not introduce new namespace declaration or scoping rules.
Element or attribute values that contain a single
QName should be declared with the xs:QName
type.