Frequently Asked Questions
Why do we need a NZ Government URN Namespace?
Interoperability involves the use of several XML schema types,
composed of groups of related schema. There are many circumstances in
which an agency might mix and match schemas in transactions. It is
likely there will be metadata tag names that are not unique in a
particular namespace.
As transactions become more complex, there is increasing need to
declare the related namespaces.
Declaring a namespace in a schema enables the sharing and re-use of
XML elements. Many e-GIF standards are based on specific XML schema,
which change over time. The schema have version numbers as a result.
It is important to include the version number in the namespace for any
particular XML schema.
The complete URN specification for NZ government agencies is described
in http://www.rfc-archive.org/getrfc.php?rfc=4350.
What is the current status of the NZ Government URN Namespace?
SSC published a Request for Comment in December 2004. Submissions on
the proposal closed on 31 March 2005 and were overwhelmingly
favourable.
Subsequently, the process and the application for a unique namespace
id (NID) - critical to the proposed structure â underwent successful
international scrutiny as an internet-draft, resulting in the
assignment of the NID, âNZLâ (the 24th such assignment in the world
to date and the first country to do so) by IANA, thus clearing the way
for its operational use. The RFC was published by the IETF in late
2005 and is now available at: <URN address>.
See http://www.iana.org/assignments/urn-namespaces for
a list of currently available URN Namespaces
The URN Namespace proposal now has a status of Under development
within the NZ e-GIF Version 3.0.
Can I see a sample URN?
A good example of URN namespaces can be found within the Government Metalogue application, where they are used for uniquely identifying agencies, services and documents. See http://www.e.govt.nz/resources/news/2003/sept-2003/2003091905.html