Kurt Zeilenga wrote:
On Oct 28, 2008, at 10:50 AM, Pierangelo Masarati wrote:
I've developed a module that implements support for the syntax of
"codice fiscale", the personal identification code used by the Italian
government to uniquely identify citizen. I think it might be of general
use, although possibly limited to Italian users, so I'd like to give it
a somewhat official and unbiased OID, rather than one under my arc or
SysNet's.
I'm not sure what you mean by "official and unbiased OIDs".
I meant something like "neutral", and strictly for a "work in progress"
phase, until I find whether there's any official agency willing to
support this initiative somehow (I'm not optimistic, as you can infer).
OIDs are
either properly delegated or not. Two properly OIDs are equally
official and have no bias. They are just a sequence of numbers after all.
Now different delegators have different biases, but these biases have no
impact on the technical aspects of the protocols.
Would it qualify as general enough for OpenLDAP's OID arc, at
least while experimental?
To qualify, the question is not whether the use is "general enough".
Exactly.
Simply put, the OpenLDAP OID arc is for the Project's use. It's not for
the use by other enterprises.
>
It primarily used for early implementations of LDAP extensions in
OpenLDAP Software, such as when the standards development organization
producing the extension specification has not yet assigned OIDs for
extension elements. It's also used for extensions specific to OpenLDAP
Software and/or the OpenLDAP Project.
Generally speaking, OpenLDAP OID should only be used to identify
elements used in OpenLDAP Software and otherwise don't otherwise have an
OID.
This use is not for my enterprise, otherwise I would have had no doubt,
and used SysNet's arc. It's a voluntary contribution to OpenLDAP, in
order to provide support for this feature and hopefully encourage other
implementors (and users) towards supporting (and using) this instead of
hijacking employeeNumber, description, myCodiceFiscale and so on. So I
infer the answer is: yes, an OID from OpenLDAP's experimental OID arc
would be appropriate for the "work in progress" phase (beware that it
could last forever :).
I believe the need for a dedicated syntax (as
opposed to IA5string, printableString or so) is that its definition,
although flawed, needs to conform to quite a few restrictions, and a
syntax that allows to detect trivial errors and single out impossible
values would be definitely helpful. I need the OID in order to submit
code along with an ITS for contrib. An OID arc would be best, because
the kit consists in:
- a syntax
- an equality matching rule (cfMatch)
- an attribute spec (cf)
- an auxiliary objectClass spec (cfObject)
Speaking generally (for all contributions):
If you use a dummy OID (e.g., 1.1) in your contribution (and document
this), then the project should, if your contribution is accepted, assign
an appropriate OID upon integration.
If you want to make use of your contribution before integration, I would
suggest you assign an OID from your arc and submit using that.
Speaking with regard to this particular situation, my primary concern
would be whether your or our assignment would conflict with that of the
organization standardizing "codice fiscale". This might be a case where
we want to consider our code an "early implementation" of a yet
published standard (where use of a .666 OID is appropriate). I'm not
familiar enough with "codice fiscale" to know whether its developers
would ever assign an OID.
Codice Fiscale is based on a law of 1976; the fact there is no standard
attribute for it, nor any vendor to my knowledge provides an attribute
for it seems indicative of the importance it has in the (Italian) LDAP
users community. The typical approach seems to consist in hijacking
another attribute generic enough to hold it, with detrimental
consequences on interoperability.
If it wasn't for that, I would say: just submit the contribution to see
if there were any objections to its integration and, if none, integrate
it using either your OID (if you already assigned one) or an OpenLDAP
OID (if not).
I'll follow this route. Thanks, p.
Ing. Pierangelo Masarati
OpenLDAP Core Team
SysNet s.r.l.
via Dossi, 8 - 27100 Pavia - ITALIA
http://www.sys-net.it
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