[urn] Re: Registration for the TEI: URN identifier

> On 9 Mar 2026, at 18:58, Dale R. Worley <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Comments on the template for the TEI URNs:
> 
> Repeating what Peter said about providing a "role identifier" as the
> contact.
> 
> Regarding the syntax:  It would be desirable to have ABNF for the
> syntax.  OTOH, the overall syntax is
> 
>    urn:tei:<type>:<domain-name>:<unique-identifier>
> 
> where <type> determines the syntax of <unique-identifier>.  The
> description at
> https://github.com/CycloneDX/transparency-exchange-api/tree/main/discovery#the-tei-urn-an-extensible-identifier
> lists eight (I think) different types and it's likely that you intend to
> allow further types to be added.  Also the specific syntaxes of the
> eight alternatives aren't specified.  So you might want to define only
> an umbrella syntax in the registration that will allow everything that
> you might want to allow in the future, and leave the details to other
> specifications.
We did move the types of PURL into a separate spec, so that’s propably a good idea
since we will add new types as we find them.
> 
> However, there is this point in RFC 8141:
> 
>      Unless the registration explicitly describes the semantics of
>      r-components, q-components, and f-components in the context of
>      this URN namespace, those semantics are undefined.
> 
> Looking at the web page, I see this example:
> 
>    urn:tei:purl:cyclonedx.org:pkg:pypi/[email protected]?extension=whl&qualifier=py3-none-any

The qualifiers here are qualifiers to the PURL that starts with PKG:, not to the URN. 
We may want to clarify that. The URN syntax checkers I have tested with found no problem
with this syntax, but they may not be correct.
> 
> I don't think any URN registration we've ever had provides for
> q-components (query parts).  So that possibility needs to be made quite
> explicit.
> 
> Assignment:  The text doesn't state directly that a vendor may only
> create TEI URNs containing a domain name that it owns.  There is also
> the complicated question of what happens when a domain name changes
> hands -- ideally, the new domain name owner obtains a list of all
> previously assigned TEI URNs with that domain name.  (We had some
> trouble on this point when working on urn:alert:.)
I am aware of this problem, but it is a bit outside of our scope in my view.
What I don’t want is to create a new global company registry as long as
we have domain names. If you leave your domain name behind, the TEA
problem is a minor problem I think.
> 
> The Resolution section of the template says "Not applicable." but the
> web page has considerable discussion of a resolution process.
I will have to review this, but I thought those where two different things.
My misunderstanding.

Thank you for your feedback Dale!

/O
> 
> Dale

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