RFC 3151 (rfc3151) - Page 1 of 9

A URN Namespace for Public Identifiers

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Network Working Group                                           N. Walsh
Request for Comments: 3151                        Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Category: Informational                                         J. Cowan
                                              Reuters Health Information
                                                               P. Grosso
                                                         Arbortext, Inc.
                                                             August 2001


                 A URN Namespace for Public Identifiers

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 designed to allow Public Identifiers to be expressed in URI
   (Uniform Resource Identifiers) syntax.

1. Introduction

   XML [1] external entities have two identifiers: a system identifier
   and a public identifier.  The system identifier is a URI, by
   definition, but the public identifier is simply a string.

   Historically, the system identifier of an external entity has been a
   local, or system-specific identifier while the public identifier has
   been a more global, persistent name.

   Unfortunately, public identifiers do not fit neatly into the existing
   web architecture because they are not legal URIs.  Many new
   specifications (XSLT, XML Schema, etc.) have the implicit or explicit
   requirement that all external identifiers be URIs.

   The purpose of this namespace is to allow public identifiers to be
   encoded in URNs in a reliable, comparable way.







Walsh, et al.                Informational
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