Web Concepts in JSON: Specification Data

The current specification model of Web Concepts is based on the assumption that specifications have an organization behind them, and that organizations publish specification series. This model is defined in the XML configuration file for specifications, which defines the supported organizations (in the <primary> elements) and their series (in the embedded <secondary> elements).

In the JSON document structure, specifications are grouped by organization on the top level, and by specification series on the second level. Underneath that second level, individual specifications are listed.

JSON Document Structure

The following JSON snippet shows one part of the complete JSON representation for specifications. Everything but the IETF RFC 2648 specification has been removed in this example.

{ "IETF":
  { "id":    "http://webconcepts.info/specs/IETF/",
    "name":  "Internet Engineering Task Force",
    "short": "IETF",
    "series": [
      { "RFC":
        { "id":    "http://webconcepts.info/specs/IETF/RFC/",
          "name":  "Request for Comments",
          "short": "RFC",
          "specs": [
            { "2648":
              { "id":       "http://webconcepts.info/specs/IETF/RFC/2648",
                "title":    "A URN Namespace for IETF Documents",
                "name":     "RFC 2648",
                "URI":      "urn:ietf:rfc:2648",
                "URL":      "http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2648",
                "abstract": "A system for Uniform Resource Names (URNs) ...",
                "concepts": [
                { "http://webconcepts.info/concepts/urn-namespace": "http://webconcepts.info/concepts/urn-namespace/ietf" }]}}]}}]}}

This JSON structure groups specification by organization first, and by specification series second. At the top level, there is the organization identifier, which is part of the Web Concepts URI of the organization, such as http://webconcepts.info/specs/IETF/. The structure describing an organization has few members:

id is the organization identifier (a URI) which can be used as a URI in a browser, and is also used to identify the value in JSON data.
name is the human-readable name of the organization.
short is an optional short/abbreviated human-readable name of the organization.
series is the set of specification series published by the organization.

Each organization can have any number of specification series. Each specification series has an identifier, which is part of the Web Concepts URI of the organization, such as http://webconcepts.info/specs/IETF/RFC/. The structure describing a specification series has few members:

id is the specification series identifier (a URI) which can be used as a URI in a browser, and is also used to identify the value in JSON data.
name is the human-readable name of the specification series.
shortis an optional short/abbreviated human-readable name of the specification series.
specs is the set of specifications in that specification series.

Each specification series can have any number of specifications. Each specification has an identifier, which is part of the Web Concepts URI of the specification, such as http://webconcepts.info/specs/IETF/RFC/2648/. The structure describing a specification has few members:

id is the specification identifier (a URI) which can be used as a URI in a browser, and is also used to identify the value in JSON data.
title is the human-readable title of the specification.
name is the human-readable name of the specification.
URI is the optional specification URI as assigned by the organization.
URL is the optional online version of the specification.
abstract is the abstract of the specification.
concepts is the set of concept values defined by that specification.

Each specification can define any number of concept values. Each defined concept value is defined as a name/value pair with the name being the concept identifier, and the value being the identifier for the defined concept value. (Please consider this issue for understanding how the concepts structure might change in the near future.)