Glossary · Administrative metadata

iiRDS Identity

Also known as: complex identity, complex identifier, multi-identifier

In iiRDS (intelligent information Request and Delivery Standard), an Identity is a complex identifier of a resource in an external system. It consists of a value (iirds:identifier) and exactly one identity domain (iirds:has-identity-domain) within which the value is unambiguous, so one resource can carry several identities from different systems.

iiRDS term
Ontology
Information architecture

In one sentence

An iiRDS Identity pairs an identifier with its domain, so a topic or component can keep its IDs from the CCMS, PLM or ERP system side by side.

Example

One topic carries the version ID 4531 from the CCMS and the publication ID V6952 from the publishing system; its component carries part number 871321 from the parts management system.

How it applies

Technical documentation: Content usually has an ID in every system it passes through. With iirds:has-identity, information objects, information units, components and product variants can keep all of them. The domain says which system the value comes from, for example https://example.com/cms/modules.
Domains and types: An iirds:IdentityDomain must have an absolute IRI and may name its custodian as an iirds:Party. With iirds:has-identity-type it states the kind of identifier: SerialNumber, ProductType, ObjectInstanceURI, ArticleCode, OrderCode, GlobalTradeItemNumber or EuropeanArticleNumber.
Handover documentation: In iiRDS/H, identities are mandatory: product variants must be identified by product type and by a serial number or instance URI, each in a domain whose manufacturer is named.
AI and retrieval: Identities let an AI system join documentation with records from PLM, ERP or service systems — the serial number in a service ticket leads straight to the documentation for that exact machine.

Identity vs. IRI

The IRI of a resource is its identifier in the RDF graph. An Identity records an additional identifier the resource has in another system. A topic has exactly one IRI, but may have many identities.

In RDF

Adapted from the identity example in the iiRDS specification. Shown in Turtle for readability — inside a package, metadata.rdf is written in RDF/XML.

@prefix iirds: <http://iirds.tekom.de/iirds#> .

<https://example.com/iirds/cms/versions> a iirds:IdentityDomain .
<https://example.com/iirds/pubs> a iirds:IdentityDomain .

<https://example.com/iirds/versions/io_1/en/1> a iirds:Topic ;
    iirds:title "Mounting the rotor"@en ;
    iirds:has-identity [
        a iirds:Identity ;
        iirds:identifier "4531" ;
        iirds:has-identity-domain <https://example.com/iirds/cms/versions>
    ] , [
        a iirds:Identity ;
        iirds:identifier "V6952" ;
        iirds:has-identity-domain <https://example.com/iirds/pubs>
    ] .