Linked Art API: Identifier Structure

Table of Contents

Introduction
Property Definitions
Example

Introduction

Identifiers are codes in string form assigned to some resource to identify it within a particular context. All of the different types of entity can have identifiers assigned to them. Identifiers are very similar in structure to Names, but are explicitly not part of natural langauge, and hence do not have a language property, nor can they be translated or have alternative forms and hence are documented separately.

Identifiers are described in the base patterns of the model documentation, and examples are present for practically every class.

Property Definitions

Identifiers have the following properties.

Properties of Identifiers

Property Name	Datatype	Requirement	Description
`id`	string	Optional	If present, the value MUST be a URI identifying the identifier, rather than the URI which is the identifier of the object
`type`	string	Required	The class for the name, which MUST be the value `"Identifier"`
`_label`	string	Recommended	A human readable label, intended for developers
`content`	string	Required	The string content of the identifier
`classified_as`	array	Recommended	An array of json objects, each of which is a further classification of the identifier and MUST follow the requirements for Type
`referred_to_by`	array	Optional	An array of json objects, each of which is either a reference to a textual work that refers to the identifier, or an embedded statement about the identifier.
`assigned_by`	array	Optional	An array of json objects, each of which is an assignment of the identifier, as below

Properties of Identifier Assignments

Property Name	Datatype	Requirement	Description
`id`	string	Optional	If present, the value MUST be a URI identifying the assignment
`type`	string	Required	The class for the name, which MUST be the value `"AttributeAssignment"`
`_label`	string	Recommended	A human readable label for the assignment, intended for developers
`classified_as`	array	Recommended	An array of json objects, each of which is a further classification of the assignment and MUST follow the requirements for Type
`carried_out_by`	array	Recommended	An array of json objects, each of which is a reference to a Person or Group
`timespan`	json object	Optional	A json object which MUST follow the requirements for timespans
`referred_to_by`	array	Optional	An array of json objects, each of which is an embedded statement about the assignment
`used_specific_object`	array	Optional	An array of json objects, each of which is a reference to another endpoint that was instrumental in the assignment of the identifier

Property Diagram

Incoming Properties

Identifier instances are typically found as the object of the following properties. This list is not exhaustive, but is intended to cover the likely cases.

Property Name	Source Endpoint	Description
`identified_by`	All	The most common case is for a resource to be identified_by an Identifier, which can be found in every endpoint
`contact_point`	Person, Group	People and Groups can also have contact points, which are modeled as Identifiers.

Example

An accession number for an object, created and assigned by Example Museum at some point during 1997.

It has a URI given in id (which identifies the Identifier, not the Object)
It has a type of "Identifier"
It has a human readable _label of "Example Museum Accession Number" to explain what it is
It is classified_as an accession number, with an id of aat:300312355 and a type of Type
It is referred_to_by a statement, with a type of "LinguisticObject" and content of "This is the original...". The LinguisticObject is classified_as a note, with an id of aat:300418049 and type of Type
It has content of the value "1997-A1752"
It was assigned_by an identifier assignment, which ...
- ... has a URI given in id (which identifies the assignment)
- ... has a type of "AttributeAssignment"
- ... has a timespan structure, with a begin_of_the_begin date of Jan 1 1997 and an end_of_the_end date of Dec 31 1997
- ... was carried_out_by a reference to the organization that created the identifer, with a type of "Group"

{
  "@context": "https://linked.art/ns/v1/linked-art.json",
  "id": "https://linked.art/example/object/6",
  "type": "HumanMadeObject",
  "identified_by": [
    {
      "type": "Identifier",
      "_label": "Example Museum Accession Number",
      "classified_as": [
        {
          "id": "http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300312355",
          "type": "Type",
          "_label": "Accession Number"
        }
      ],
      "content": "1997-A1752",
      "referred_to_by": [
        {
          "type": "LinguisticObject",
          "classified_as": [
            {
              "id": "http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300027200",
              "type": "Type",
              "_label": "Note",
              "classified_as": [
                {
                  "id": "http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300418049",
                  "type": "Type",
                  "_label": "Brief Text"
                }
              ]
            }
          ],
          "content": "This is the original accession number from 1997"
        }
      ],
      "assigned_by": [
        {
          "type": "AttributeAssignment",
          "_label": "Assignment of 1997-A1752",
          "timespan": {
            "type": "TimeSpan",
            "_label": "1997",
            "begin_of_the_begin": "1997-01-01T00:00:00Z",
            "end_of_the_end": "1997-12-31T00:00:00Z"
          },
          "carried_out_by": [
            {
              "type": "Group",
              "_label": "Example Museum"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

graph TD classDef object stroke:black,fill:#E1BA9C,rx:20px,ry:20px; classDef actor stroke:black,fill:#FFBDCA,rx:20px,ry:20px; classDef type stroke:red,fill:#FAB565,rx:20px,ry:20px; classDef name stroke:orange,fill:#FEF3BA,rx:20px,ry:20px; classDef dims stroke:black,fill:#c6c6c6,rx:20px,ry:20px; classDef infoobj stroke:#907010,fill:#fffa40,rx:20px,ry:20px classDef timespan stroke:blue,fill:#ddfffe,rx:20px,ry:20px classDef place stroke:#3a7a3a,fill:#aff090,rx:20px,ry:20px classDef event stroke:#1010FF,fill:#96e0f6,rx:20px,ry:20px classDef literal stroke:black,fill:#f0f0e0; classDef classstyle stroke:black,fill:white; O1(object6) class O1 object; O1-- type -->O1_0[HumanMadeObject] class O1_0 classstyle; O2( _ ) class O2 name; O2-- type -->O2_0[Identifier] class O2_0 classstyle; O2-- _label -->O2_2("''Example Museum Accession Number''") class O2_2 literal; O3(aat:300312355) class O3 type; O3-- type -->O3_0[Type] class O3_0 classstyle; O3-- _label -->O3_3("''Accession Number''") class O3_3 literal; O2-- classified_as -->O3 O2-- content -->O2_4("''1997-A1752''") class O2_4 literal; O4( _ ) class O4 infoobj; O4-- type -->O4_0[LinguisticObject] class O4_0 classstyle; O5(aat:300027200) class O5 type; O5-- type -->O5_0[Type] class O5_0 classstyle; O5-- _label -->O5_3("''Note''") class O5_3 literal; O6(aat:300418049) class O6 type; O6-- type -->O6_0[Type] class O6_0 classstyle; O6-- _label -->O6_3("''Brief Text''") class O6_3 literal; O5-- classified_as -->O6 O4-- classified_as -->O5 O4-- content -->O4_3("''This is the original accession number from 1997''") class O4_3 literal; O2-- referred_to_by -->O4 O7( _ ) class O7 event; O7-- type -->O7_0[AttributeAssignment] class O7_0 classstyle; O7-- _label -->O7_2("''Assignment of 1997-A1752''") class O7_2 literal; O8( _ ) class O8 timespan; O8-- type -->O8_0[TimeSpan] class O8_0 classstyle; O8-- _label -->O8_2("''1997''") class O8_2 literal; O8-- begin_of_the_begin -->O8_3("''1997-01-01T00:00:00Z''") class O8_3 literal; O8-- end_of_the_end -->O8_4("''1997-12-31T00:00:00Z''") class O8_4 literal; O7-- timespan -->O8 O9( _ ) class O9 actor; O9-- type -->O9_0[Group] class O9_0 classstyle; O9-- _label -->O9_2("''Example Museum''") class O9_2 literal; O7-- carried_out_by -->O9 O2-- assigned_by -->O7 O1-- identified_by -->O2

Other Representations: JSON-LD (raw) | JSON-LD (playground) | Turtle (raw) | Turtle (styled)