CR: Model for Tabular Data and Metadata on the Web

Model for Tabular Data and Metadata on the Web

http://www.w3.org/TR/2015/CR-tabular-data-model-20150716/

feedback due by: 2015-10-30

Abstract

Tabular data is routinely transferred on the web in a variety of formats, including variants on CSV, tab-delimited files, fixed field formats, spreadsheets, HTML tables, and SQL dumps. This document outlines a data model, or infoset, for tabular data and metadata about that tabular data that can be used as a basis for validation, display, or creating other formats. It also contains some non-normative guidance for publishing tabular data as CSV and how that maps into the tabular data model.

An annotated model of tabular data can be supplemented by separate metadata about the table. This specification defines how implementations should locate that metadata, given a file containing tabular data. The standard syntax for that metadata is defined in [tabular-metadata]. Note, however, that applications may have other means to create annotated tables, e.g., through some application specific API-s; this model does not depend on the specificities described in [tabular-metadata].

Status of the Document

This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at http://www.w3.org/TR/.

The CSV on the Web Working Group was chartered to produce a Recommendation "Access methods for CSV Metadata" as well as Recommendations for "Metadata vocabulary for CSV data" and "Mapping mechanism to transforming CSV into various Formats (e.g., RDF, JSON, or XML)". This document aims to primarily satisfy the first of those Recommendations (see section 5. Locating Metadata), though it also specifies an underlying model for tabular data and is therefore a basis for the other chartered Recommendations.

This definition of CSV used in this document is based on IETF's [RFC4180] which is an Informational RFC. The working group's expectation is that future suggestions to refine RFC 4180 will be relayed to the IETF (e.g. around encoding and line endings) and contribute to its discussions about moving CSV to the Standards track.

Many files containing tabular data embed metadata, for example in lines before the header row of an otherwise standard CSV document. This specification does not define any formats for embedding metadata within CSV files, aside from the titles of columns in the header row which is defined in CSV. We would encourage groups that define tabular data formats to also define a mapping into the annotated tabular data model defined in this document.

This document was published by the CSV on the Web Working Group as a Candidate Recommendation. This document is intended to become a W3C Recommendation. If you wish to make comments regarding this document, please send them to public-csv-wg@w3.org (subscribe, archives). W3C publishes a Candidate Recommendation to indicate that the document is believed to be stable and to encourage implementation by the developer community. This Candidate Recommendation is expected to advance to Proposed Recommendation no earlier than 30 October 2015. All comments are welcome.

Please see the Working Group's implementation report.

Publication as a Candidate Recommendation does not imply endorsement by the W3C Membership. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.

This document was produced by a group operating under the 5 February 2004 W3C Patent Policy. W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) must disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.

This document is governed by the 1 August 2014 W3C Process Document.