Beyond Schemas: Planning Your XML Model

Naming Conventions

Naming conventions are extremely important to the development of this and future information models. Without naming conventions, you may find yourself forgetting what a particular information type or content unit is called. You might also find that if you name each of your files differently, you are less likely to find the file you need again easily.

There are a variety of naming conventions you can specify, including:

• Filenames

• Element names

• Metadata names and values

• Unique IDs

• Titles

Filenaming Conventions

It is helpful to name files based on the information that is in the file. This standard will allow staff to quickly find what they are looking for or referencing.

The following contains some examples of some filenaming conventions:

Valid filename	Notes
Starts with a letter.	A–Z or a–z.
Consists of only letters and numbers (alphanumeric characters).	A–Z or a–z or 0–9.
Contains no special characters.	+ or − or * or ! or & or ? are not acceptable (/ is allowed).
Has no more than eight (alphanumeric) characters in all.
Company name.	May start each filename with the company name "Comstar."
Product domain.	After the company name, the product domain must be specified (e.g., Computers).
Product name.	After the product domain, the product name must be specified (e.g., SuperComputers).
Release number.	After the product name, the release number must be specified (e.g., 1.0).
Information type	Each filename starts with what kind of information type template the information developer used to structure ...