OASIS Open TC Handbook
Quality & naming

Naming & URIs

Every published OASIS work product must follow the OASIS Naming Directives v1.7: a binding directive governing which characters are allowed, how filenames and URIs are constructed, which stage abbreviations are current, and what three URIs must appear on every cover page. Getting naming right before first publication matters because published resources may not be altered or deleted after the fact.

What changed since the 2010 handbook

Naming Directives v1.7, effective 2 January 2024, made two substantive changes:

  1. The stage abbreviations csprd, cnprd, and cos were removed. They are obsolete and must not appear in new filenames or URIs. Documents going to public review continue to use their existing stage name (csd or cnd); there is no distinct "public review draft" stage designator any longer.
  2. A public-review metadata filename pattern was added: work products undergoing public review now require a companion metadata file named with the -public-review-metadata suffix (see below).

If your reference material still refers to csprd, cnprd, or cos as current stage names, it is out of date. Naming Directives v1.7 §Stage abbreviations

Allowed characters

OASIS work-product names and URIs are constructed from a restricted character set. Naming Directives v1.7

Policy requirement

Only alphanumerics (A–Z, a–z, 0–9), hyphens (-), and periods (.) are permitted in document URIs. Underscores (_) may appear in generated filenames but must not appear in document URIs. No leading, trailing, or consecutive punctuation characters are allowed.

Current stage abbreviations

The binding list of stage abbreviations appears in the Naming Directives. Use exactly the abbreviations below, no others. Naming Directives v1.7 §Stage abbreviations

Current and obsolete stage abbreviations for OASIS work products
Abbreviation Stage name Track Notes
csd Committee Specification Draft Standards Track Carries a revision number: csd01, csd02, etc.
cs Committee Specification Standards Track Carries a revision number: cs01, cs02, etc.
os OASIS Standard Standards Track Never carries a revision number. Only one OASIS Standard per version.
errata Approved Errata Standards Track Carries a revision number: errata01, etc.
cnd Committee Note Draft Non-Standards Track Carries a revision number: cnd01, cnd02, etc.
cn Committee Note Non-Standards Track Carries a revision number: cn01, cn02, etc.
Historical note

The following abbreviations were used before Naming Directives v1.7 (January 2, 2024) and are now obsolete and removed: csprd (Committee Specification Public Review Draft), cnprd (Committee Note Public Review Draft), cos (Candidate OASIS Standard as a named stage). They must not appear in any new or revised work-product filenames or URIs. Documents published before v1.7 that used these abbreviations retain them in their permanent URIs (persistence rules prevent changing them), but any continuation of work uses the current abbreviations. Naming Directives v1.7 §Stage abbreviations

Filename pattern

The standard filename pattern for single-part work products is: Naming Directives v1.7

[WP-abbrev]-[version-id]-[stage-abbrev][revisionNumber].[ext]

Where:

Example: emix-v1.0-csd01.html

Multi-part work products

For work products published in multiple parts, insert a part identifier between the stage designator and the extension: Naming Directives v1.7

[WP-abbrev]-[version-id]-[stage-abbrev][revisionNumber]-[partNumber]-[partName].[ext]

Public-review metadata filename (new in v1.7)

Work products undergoing public review must include a companion metadata file. The filename pattern is: Naming Directives v1.7

[WP-abbrev]-[version-id]-[stage-abbrev][revisionNumber]-public-review-metadata.html

Example: emix-v1.0-csd01-public-review-metadata.html

This file provides a publication history of the work product and documents the occurrence of the public review. Project Administration publishes it when the TC resolves to initiate a public review.

URI pattern

Published documents are assigned permanent URIs under docs.oasis-open.org. The pattern is: Naming Directives v1.7

https://docs.oasis-open.org/[tc-shortname]/[WP-abbrev]/[version-id]/[stage-abbrev][revisionNumber]/[doc-id].[ext]

Example: https://docs.oasis-open.org/emergency/cap/v1.2/cs01/CAP-v1.2-cs01.html

Three required cover-page URIs

Every published work product must carry exactly three version URIs on its cover page. Naming Directives v1.7

Policy requirement
  1. This stage: the permanent, immutable URI for this specific stage and revision. This URI points to this document and no other; it is never reused or updated after publication.
  2. Previous stage: the "This stage" URI of the immediately preceding approved stage of the same work product, or "N/A" if there is no prior stage.
  3. Latest stage: an alias URI that always points to the most current publication of this work product, regardless of stage or revision. Unlike the "This stage" URI, the latest-stage alias is overwritten with each new publication (it is the only URI that may be updated after a document is published).

Using a consistent "Latest stage" URI in citations and links means downstream readers are always directed to the most current version without the author having to update every reference.

XML namespace rule (/ns/)

When a work product defines XML namespaces, those namespaces must be placed under the /ns/ path segment: Naming Directives v1.7

http://docs.oasis-open.org/[tc-shortname]/ns/…
https://docs.oasis-open.org/[tc-shortname]/ns/…
Policy requirement

The /ns/ path element is reserved for non-information resources only: it is for namespace identifiers, not for retrievable documents. Do not use /ns/ in the URI of a document you intend to publish as a retrievable resource.

Persistence

OASIS Library resources are permanent. Naming Directives v1.7

Policy requirement

Published resources in the OASIS Library must not be deleted or altered after publication. The only exception is the "Latest stage" alias URI, which is designed to be overwritten each time a newer stage is published. All other published URIs, "This stage" and "Previous stage", are permanent and immutable once assigned.

This persistence rule is why getting naming correct before first publication is critical: a document published with an incorrect filename or URI retains that URI forever, and the only remedy is to publish a correction under a new stage/revision designator.

The rule protects the link between a published address and its resource. TCs must not use URI aliasing by any means. Naming Directives v1.7 §6.5 Separately, as staff practice outside that rule, OASIS staff can add a redirect at an address that was never published, since such an address has no resource to protect. That is how a link in a published document that points to an unpublished address can be repaired without changing the document. The Naming Directives set out the rule in two sections: Resource Permanence Naming Directives v1.7 §6.3 and URI Persistence Naming Directives v1.7 §6.4. For how defects in published stages are handled, with examples, see Defects in other published stages.