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historical-data / schema

Microdata schema for historical data.
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normalize person events #9

Closed stoicflame closed 12 years ago

stoicflame commented 12 years ago

I propose eliminating properties such as 'baptism', 'burial', 'birth', 'death' because those events are redundant because they can be expressed by the 'events' property.

ninjudd commented 12 years ago

These four event types are unique from other events because there can only be one per profile. Keeping them separate is a good way to enforce this constraint and is more convenient for clients reading the data.

stoicflame commented 12 years ago

These four event types are unique from other events because there can only be one per profile. Keeping them separate is a good way to enforce this constraint and is more convenient for clients reading the data.

But you're not enforcing the constraint at all if you allow for these kinds of events in the person event list. What happens if there is a death event and there is an event in the events property of type "death"? Which death event do clients honor as the "official" death event? How do they treat additional death events? Are they "alternate" death events? Or do all events in the events list get overridden by the death event property? What happens if there is no death event property, but there is an event of type "death" in the event list?

So, I would disagree with you when you say that it's "more convenient" for clients reading the data. Now clients have to deal with these complexities.

ninjudd commented 12 years ago

These canonical event types should not be put in the events property.

stoicflame commented 12 years ago

These canonical event types should not be put in the events property.

Okay. That's easy to say, but impossible to enforce.

ninjudd commented 12 years ago

That's the case with every field in the schema. Adding singular fields for canonical events in the schema is better than having to scan through all events and deal with duplicates, IMO.

stoicflame commented 12 years ago

Adding singular fields for canonical events in the schema is better than having to scan through all events and deal with duplicates, IMO.

Fair enough. Closing the issue.

RobertGardner commented 12 years ago

You guys are fast! I was going to make the same arguments for keeping the canonical fields. Whew! :-)