Citeable Identifiers

Owned by Andy Tseng
Mar 21, 2024
2 min read

1. Objects that have CIDS

As we create objects (information) in the data model structure, we also assign those objects citable identifiers (CID). These allow us and you to refer to the objects in a reasonably human-friendly way. Ultimately, these CIDs can be used to reference these objects externally (e.g. to publish some data).

The form of the CID that we create is a hierarchical number (like an internet address) for each object in the system. For example, a CID of 23.4.1.3.10 would be the tenth DataSet of the third Study of the first ExMethod of the fourth Subject of the twenty third Project.
You can see how these CIDs are analogous to Internet addresses which also reflect a hierarchy (a domain hierarchy).

Now in reality, there are 2 more numbers that prefix these CIDs. These specify 1) the Mediaflux system that allocated them and 2) what kind of object the next number refers to call it a object type separator). So the full form is

 UUID.OTS.P.S.ExM.St.DS

For example, the full CID for the above Project might be 1024.2.23.4.1.3.10 where
the UUID of the Mediaflux server is 1024 and the .2 happens to mean, on this specific system that the object that follows is a Project.

As another example, a CID of 1024.3.10 might be the tenth Method and the .3 means that the object that comes next is a Method.

The object type separators vary from Mediaflux system to system, but each system can tell you what kind of object has what separator.

You can see that within a Mediaflux federation, the citable ID is unique. These citable IDs are extensible in both directions. It means that additional numbers could prefix the CID and allow uniqueness in some wider federations (e.g. international community).

Note that the CID root is actually separable from the server UUID. In some early Mediaflux systems, they are different values. In later systems, the UUID is always the CID root.

2. Objects that don't have CIDS

DaRIS can associate attachments with primary objects. These assets don't have CIDs, just associational relationships with primary objects that enable their discovery and management.