Products, product instances, GS1 Digital Link semantics

Dear all,

I need some help please with the correct use of schema.org terms in
relation to products and product instances. The context is the GS1
Digital Link standard [1] that is currently in a period of public
review. GS1 Digital Link is a means of representing our identifiers in
HTTP URIs. We have lots of different identifiers but the one we're best
known for is the GTIN, a super-property of UPC and EAN numbers or, in
simpler terms, the number you see underneath a barcode.

So, take a GTIN like: 09506000134352

We can represent this in a URI thus:

https://example.com/gtin/09506000134352

Note the use of example.com - the Digital Link standard is agnostic
about domain names but if you want one that dereferences then the same
GTIN can be expressed as
https://id.gs1.org/gtin/09506000134352

In terms of semantics, that URI identifies a class of product so we can say

<https://id.gs1.org/gtin/09506000134352> a schema:Product.

Yes?

Or should that be schema:SomeProducts? (I find the schema definitions
highly ambiguous on this point).

GS1 Digital Link goes further.

I can add in a batch/lot number like this

<https://id.gs1.org/gtin/09506000134352/lot/ABC123> rdfs:subClassOf
<https://id.gs1.org/gtin/09506000134352>.

Or, again, could I use schema:SomeProducts there somehow?

And I can add in a serial number to get:

<https://id.gs1.org/gtin/09506000134352/lot/ABC123/ser/000123> a
schema:IndividualProduct;
   a <https://id.gs1.org/gtin/09506000134352>;
   schema:serialNumber "000123".

That looks attractive, but is it right in terms of schema.org semantics?
An alternative would be:

<https://id.gs1.org/gtin/09506000134352/lot/ABC123/ser/000123> a
schema:IndividualProduct;
   rdfs:subClassof <https://id.gs1.org/gtin/09506000134352>;
   schema:serialNumber "000123".

Here we have a sub class of which there is only one member.

Either way, it is trying to say that
<https://id.gs1.org/gtin/09506000134352/lot/ABC123/ser/000123>
identifies a specific instance of the product
https://id.gs1.org/gtin/09506000134352 (it could also say that it's an
instance of <https://id.gs1.org/gtin/09506000134352/lot/ABC123>).


There's a more complex example too. Try this:

https://id.gs1.org/gtin/09506000134352?exp=201200

There's a lot of GS1-speak in there but it means that you're holding a
thing that has a GTIN of 09506000134352 that has an expiry date of
2020-12-31. So we need to translate that GS1 stuff into more general
purpose semantics. It comes out as:

[] a <https://id.gs1.org/gtin/09506000134352>, schema:IndividualProduct;
   gs1:expiryDate "2020-12-31"^^xsd:date.

That is, we need a blank node in there otherwise we'd be making the
false assertion that *all* instances of 09506000134352 expired on that date.

I'd really like to make sure that the proposed use of schema.org matches
what this community understands and expects. There's a slight disconnect
in that we're identifying product classes and instances rather than
pages about them hence the GS1-centred community would be very grateful
for any assistance.

The bigger picture: this is tied up with the future of barcoding and
product identification generally, both online and offline, so we need to
get details right. I've included some links to some short videos that
may be of interest to some folks here.

Thank you

Phil


[1]
https://www.gs1.org/sites/default/files/docs/gsmp/gs1_digital_link_1.1_comrev_version_786.pdf
(a very long document but the key section for this conversation is
section 11 - which is not so long)

Comments on any aspect of that draft standard are welcome via
https://www.gs1.org/standards/development-work-groups#DigitalLInk


Videos for background info:

Generic B2C story https://adobe.ly/2KJCiqH
Generic B2B story https://adobe.ly/31urWRu
Recent possible future of on pack scanning demos
https://adobe.ly/2Jp5Aso


--
Phil Archer
Director, Web Solutions, GS1
https://www.gs1.org

Register now for the GS1 Industry & Standards event
Lisbon, 9-13 September https://standards-event-lisbon.gs1.org/

https://philarcher.org
+44 (0)7887 767755
@philarcher1
Skype: philarcher

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Received on Tuesday, 9 July 2019 11:22:25 UTC