Right now, properly setting custom IDs is somewhat counter-intuitive (to me).
The python-stix documentation has information on setting ID namespaces [1], which at present boils down to set_id_namespace({"http://MY-NAMESPACE.com" : "myNS"}) which causes myNS to be registered as an alias for http://MY-NAMESPACE.com.
After setting the namespace, IDs currently need to be set with the namespace alias in mind. For example: sp = STIXPackage(id_='myNS:SomeID') is required if you want to use SomeID instead of an auto-generated ID. However, I think this might trip some people up. I think some people would expect the id_ kwarg to just set the local part, and that the API would automatically prepend the alias (e.g., myNS). For example, I could see people thinking that sp = STIXPackage(id_='local_part_only') would create a valid ID because the APIs would "know" to prepend the NS alias.
This issue is to discuss this point of view and, should there be a consensus, possibly modify the implementation of IDs. One outcome could be that if there is not a namespace alias set in the id_ property, use the ID namespace. If there is a namespace alias set in the id_ property, use the specified namespace alias.
Thoughts?
Note: #176 might be related
[1] http://stix.readthedocs.org/en/latest/examples/index.html#id-namespaces
Right now, properly setting custom IDs is somewhat counter-intuitive (to me).
The python-stix documentation has information on setting ID namespaces [1], which at present boils down to
set_id_namespace({"http://MY-NAMESPACE.com" : "myNS"})which causesmyNSto be registered as an alias forhttp://MY-NAMESPACE.com.After setting the namespace, IDs currently need to be set with the namespace alias in mind. For example:
sp = STIXPackage(id_='myNS:SomeID')is required if you want to useSomeIDinstead of an auto-generated ID. However, I think this might trip some people up. I think some people would expect theid_kwarg to just set the local part, and that the API would automatically prepend the alias (e.g.,myNS). For example, I could see people thinking thatsp = STIXPackage(id_='local_part_only')would create a valid ID because the APIs would "know" to prepend the NS alias.This issue is to discuss this point of view and, should there be a consensus, possibly modify the implementation of IDs. One outcome could be that if there is not a namespace alias set in the
id_property, use the ID namespace. If there is a namespace alias set in theid_property, use the specified namespace alias.Thoughts?
Note: #176 might be related
[1] http://stix.readthedocs.org/en/latest/examples/index.html#id-namespaces