Description
At today's meeting, the members discussed the following topics:
1. TOPIC: Layers is a useful extension concept, is there a good summary of the current discussion? (Answer: Three discussion topics related to Layers include what are Layers, how to implement Layers, and should Layers be used in the DE. Layers appear to be a good concept for enabling business-level extension, the Layers concept is currently used in CAP through the use of the Name/Value pairs, and the use of Layers beyond CAP has been recommended. Norm has uploaded a useful document describing Layers and their current use with CAP that serves as an informative reference. )
2. TOPIC: Should Layers be implemented in the Common Types? (Answer: The Common Types is the place to provide schema implementations of concepts which are expected to be useful across multiple EDXL standards. Since Layers are expected to be used in other EDXL standards than just CAP, it is appropriate to consider implementing the Layers concept in the Common Types. This wouldn’t actually enable Layers in any particular EDXL standard, it would just provide a common implementation which could be used to enable Layers in any particular standard if the developers so chose. )
3. TOPIC: If Layers were used in the DE, could it be used to describe either or both of the overall message and the individual content objects? (Answer: Yes, it could support both. The DE has descriptive elements for both the overall message and the individual content objects, so the Layers concept could be implemented in both places. In the DE draft WD10, it was used in both places.)
4. TOPIC: How do we help to ensure extension mechanisms like Layers are not abused? (Answer: We should include extension principles and guidance in our Note to help alert people of potential issues and how to avoid them. We can borrow from Norm’s Layers document to describe these principles.)
