[eml-dev] [Bug 2568] - Inconsistent naming of "method"(s) element

[bugzilla-daemon at ecoinformatics.org]

http://bugzilla.ecoinformatics.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2568


mob at icess.ucsb.edu changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
         AssignedTo|jones at nceas.ucsb.edu        |mob at icess.ucsb.edu




------- Comment #3 from mob at icess.ucsb.edu  2008-10-02 13:05 -------
The methodsType elements are children of <methods> or <method> elements in
several mnodules:
eml-attribute.xsd:
  <xs:element name="method" type="md:MethodsType" minOccurs="0">
eml-dataset.xsd:
  <xs:element name="methods" type="md:MethodsType" minOccurs="0">
eml-entity.xsd:
  <xs:element name="method" type="md:MethodsType" minOccurs="0">
eml-methods.xsd:
  <xs:element name="methods" type="MethodsType">

the xpaths in instance documents:
eml/dataset/methods
eml/dataset/dataTable/method
eml/dataset/dataTable/attributeList/attribute/method


the declarations will be standardized to 
<xs:element name="methods" type="md:MethodsType" ...>

for these reasons:
1. the type is called MethodsType (plural) in the imported methods module,
2. it can be composed of multiple <methodStep> elements (or other) children,
3. use of a plural noun is common common practice in XML to contain multiple
singular children of the same noun, which means that if the methods module is
expanded in the future, <method> children (singular) could be inserted to
contain the <methodStep>s