Software Architect's Handbook

Structuring namespaces

A namespace is a unique Uniform Resource Locator (URI). Namespaces are used to group related services and elements together and to differentiate between different ones that share the same name. It is important for software architects to put thought into namespaces. By providing a unique namespace, even if your organization uses services from another one, your elements will be guaranteed to be unique. Even if two organizations have a service with the same name, they will be differentiated by their namespace.

In addition to providing unique names, namespaces are used to logically organize various services and elements. An appropriate namespace should provide meaning to the service or element so that someone who is looking ...