Difference between revisions of "ContextId"

Revision as of 22:55, 24 December 2006

• A ContextRef is a URI that identifies a Context.
• ContextRefs either directly or indirectly (e.g. by conventions, lookups, etc.) provide sufficient information to identify a Context
• Two different ContextRefs may refer to the same Context
• If two ContextRefs are equal, they refer to the same underlying Context dataset, although not necessarily the same Context "container" instance, and, based on the authorization of the Digital Identity passed in during authentication, may only be permitted to see a subset of its contents.
• A given ContextRef may be used against multiple Context Providers to produce the same Context (although, as mentioned, different IContext instances).
• ContextRefs MAY be XRIs
• ContextRefs MUST be subdivideable by "/" (e.g. to allow constructing through the following possible kind of concatenation: <contextRef-root>/<schemaType>/<object-identifier>)
• ContextRefs are used by the Identity Attribute Service (IdAS) and its Context Providers

Examples

1. http://www.fabrikam123.example/4f544/ldap347/HR/employees --an LDAP employee directory
2. proprietary-scheme-a://contactlist -- user's contact list stored as tab-delimited file
3. xri://foo*bar/baz

Open issues

1. Do we need a method in IdAS to test that two given ContextRefs actually resolve to the same Context?

See Also

• Higgins Home
• Higgins Wiki
• Concepts