iLingo - The Language of Insurance e-Business
(C) 1999 Lexica, LLC
3.2.4. Links and Multiple Documents
The iLingo design uses simple one-way links to associate one
document to another. This allows the schemas to be focused on a consistent
subject while existing within an abstract framework. That is, for example, a
person schema can focus on modeling information about a person and another
schema can point to instances of that schema to associate other data or
transactions with that person.
When a simple link is encoded, it is of one of three
categories:
- A location link whose presence on an element is one of the main
purposes for the element. For example, the person.ref element in the consumer
account schema. This is represented by the presence of an
href attribute of type
URI. In this case, the URI value is meant to be a location
of the target.
- A location link whose presence on an element augments or
associates the targeted object but is not the main purpose of the element. For
example, the
quote.result.href attribute of the auto scenario schema.
This is represented by a "role" or "identifier" suffixed by a
href name with a type of
URI. In this case, the URI value is meant to be a location
of the target.
- A name link whose presence on an element is one of the main
purposes for the element. It identifies a target object but the value of the
link is not a location. For example, the
ref attribute on the
auxiliary.driver element of the auto scenario schema is
the URI value used in the auto line of business which uniquely identifies the
driver who plays this role. This is represented by a
ref attribute of type
URI. The URI value does not represent a location but
rather a name which must be resolved to a location.
- A name link whose presence on an element augments or associates
the targeted object but is not the main purposes for the element. It identifies
a target object but the value of the link is not a location. For example, the
vehicle.ref attribute on the
vehicle.coverage element of the auto scenario schema is
the URI value used in the auto line of business which uniquely identifies the
vehicle being covered by the scenario. This is represented by a "role" or
"identifier" suffixed by a
ref name with a type of
URI. The URI value does not represent a location but
rather a name which must be resolved to a location.