Flavor Model Extensions

Relaton's flavor architecture means each standards organization has a dedicated gem with its own model extensions. These extensions add domain-specific fields to the base BibliographicItem — capturing metadata that is unique to each organization's publishing workflow.

Inheritance Hierarchy

Flavor models inherit from the base BibliographicItem (defined in relaton-bib) and add their own fields:

BibliographicItem (relaton-bib)
  │
  ├── IsoBibliographicItem (relaton-iso-bib)
  │     └── IecBibliographicItem (relaton-iec)
  │
  ├── IetfBibliographicItem (relaton-ietf)
  ├── ItuBibliographicItem (relaton-itu)
  ├── NistBibliographicItem (relaton-nist)
  ├── BipmBibliographicItem (relaton-bipm)
  ├── BibliographicItem (relaton-3gpp)
  └── IeeeBibliographicItem (relaton-ieee)

Note: IEC inherits from ISO (gaining all ISO-specific fields plus its own), while all other flavors inherit directly from the base model.

ISO

Gem: relaton-iso-bibInherits from: BibliographicItem

ISO extensions capture the organizational structure of ISO standards development and the compound title structure used across ISO documents.

Field	Type	Description
doctype	enum	Document type: standard, international-standard, technical-specification, technical-report, publicly-available-specification, international-workshop-agreement, guide
editorialgroup	EditorialGroup	ISO committee structure (see below)
ics	Array<Ics>	International Classification for Standards codes
structuredidentifier	StructuredIdentifier	Machine-parseable ISO identifier (see below)

EditorialGroup — tracks which ISO committee is responsible:

editorialgroup:
  technical_committee:
    - name: Geographic information/Geomatics
      type: TC
      number: 211
  subcommittee:
    - name: Geographic information services
      type: SC
      number: 1
  secretariat: ANSI

Each committee level (technical_committee, subcommittee, workgroup) has name, type, and number.

StructuredIdentifier — decomposes ISO identifiers:

structuredidentifier:
  project_number: 'ISO 19115-1'
  tc_document_number: 'ISO/TC 211'
  part: '1'
  subpart: '2'
  type: ISO

ISO Title Types — ISO uses a three-part title convention (title-intro -- title-main -- title-part). Relaton models each component:

• title-intro — e.g., "Geographic information"
• title-main — e.g., "Metadata"
• title-part — e.g., "Fundamentals"

IEC

Gem: relaton-iecInherits from: IsoBibliographicItem (layered on ISO)

IEC inherits all ISO extensions and adds IEC-specific metadata:

Field	Type	Description
function	enum	Functional area: emc, safety, environment, quality-assurance
updates_document_type	enum	Type of document being updated
accessibility_color_inside	boolean	Whether the document contains color content
cen_processing	boolean	Whether CEN processing applies (for dual-logo standards)
price_code	string	IEC pricing code
secretary	string	Committee secretary
interest_to_committees	string	Other committees with interest in this document
horizontal	boolean	Whether this is a horizontal standard

Additional document types beyond ISO: industry-technical-agreement, system-reference-deliverableDocument subtypes: specification, method-of-test, vocabulary, code-of-practice

IETF

Gem: relaton-ietfInherits from: BibliographicItem

IETF has the lightest extension — only two fields beyond the base model:

Field	Type	Description
doctype	enum	rfc, internet-draft, draft-standard, bcp, std, fyi, info, exp
keyword	Array<String>	Keyword strings from the RFC metadata

The IETF data model is simple because RFC metadata is well-structured and standardized through the RFC Series and bib.ietf.org.

ITU

Gem: relaton-ituInherits from: BibliographicItem

ITU extensions model the three-sector structure (ITU-T, ITU-R, ITU-D) and the rich document type taxonomy of ITU Recommendations.

Field	Type	Description
doctype	DocumentType	ITU document type with type and abbreviation (see below)
editorialgroup	EditorialGroup	ITU-specific committee structure with bureau
structuredidentifier	StructuredIdentifier	ITU-specific: bureau, docnumber, annexid

Document types: recommendation, recommendation-supplement, recommendation-amendment, recommendation-corrigendum, recommendation-errata, recommendation-annex, focus-group, implementers-guide, technical-paper, technical-report, joint-itu-iso-iec, resolution, service-publication, handbook, question, contribution

EditorialGroup — includes the ITU bureau:

editorialgroup:
  bureau: T              # T = Telecommunication, D = Development, R = Radiocommunication
  group:
    name: Study Group 17
    type: study-group
    acronym: SG17
    period:
      start: '2022'
      finish: '2025'

NIST

Gem: relaton-nistInherits from: BibliographicItem

NIST extensions model the detailed publication lifecycle of NIST Special Publications, FIPS, and other NIST document series.

Field	Type	Description
doctype	DocumentType	NIST document type
docstatus	DocumentStatus	NIST-specific lifecycle stages (see below)
commentperiod	CommentPeriod	Public comment period with dates

Document lifecycle stages:

Stage	Substage	Description
draft-internal	—	Internal working draft
draft-wip	—	Work-in-progress draft
draft-prelim	—	Preliminary public draft
draft-public	active	Public draft, accepting comments
draft-public	retired	Public draft, comment period closed
final	active	Published and current
final	retired	Published but retired
final	withdrawn	Withdrawn from publication
final-review	active	Under periodic review

Each stage also carries an iteration number.

CommentPeriod:

commentperiod:
  from: '2024-01-15'
  to: '2024-04-15'
  extended: '2024-06-01'    # optional extension

NIST series include: SP (Special Publication), FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards), IR (Interagency Report), TN (Technical Note), HB (Handbook), CSWP (Cybersecurity White Paper), NCSTAR (National Construction Safety Team), NSRDS (National Standard Reference Data Series).

BIPM

Gem: relaton-bipmInherits from: BibliographicItem

BIPM extensions model SI Brochure metadata and the committee structure of the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) and its Consultative Committees.

Field	Type	Description
doctype	DocumentType	BIPM document type (see below)
si_aspect	string	SI Brochure aspect code
editorialgroup	EditorialGroup	Committees and workgroups
structuredidentifier	StructuredIdentifier	docnumber, part, appendix
comment_period	CommentPeriod	Comment period with dates
meeting_note	string	Meeting note text

Document types: brochure, mise-en-pratique, rapport, monographie, guide, meeting-report, technical-report, working-party-note, strategy, cipm-mra, resolutions

SI aspect codes — identify which part of the SI Brochure is affected: full, m_c, kg_h, s_deltanu, A_e, K_k, mol_NA, cd_Kcd, and compound codes like kg_h_c_deltanu. These correspond to the seven base SI units and their redefinitions.

Committee structure:

editorialgroup:
  committee:
    - content: Consultative Committee for Length
      acronym: CCL
  workgroup:
    - content: Working Group on the Mise en Pratique
      acronym: WG-MeP

Committee acronyms are validated against a controlled vocabulary.

3GPP

Gem: relaton-3gppInherits from: BibliographicItem

3GPP has the most heavily extended flavor model, driven by the 3GPP release lifecycle — specifications move through freeze stages tied to specific meetings.

Field	Type	Description
doctype	enum	TR (Technical Report), TS (Technical Specification)
docsubtype	enum	spec, release
radiotechnology	enum	2G, 3G, LTE, 5G
common_ims_spec	boolean	Whether this is a common IMS specification
release	Release	Complex release metadata (see below)

Release object — models the 3GPP release lifecycle:

Field	Description
version2g	2G version identifier
version3g	3G version identifier
defunct	Whether this release is defunct
wpm_code_2g	WPM code for 2G
wpm_code_3g	WPM code for 3G
freeze_meeting	Meeting at which the release was frozen
freeze_stage1_meeting	Stage 1 freeze meeting
freeze_stage2_meeting	Stage 2 freeze meeting
freeze_stage3_meeting	Stage 3 freeze meeting
close_meeting	Meeting at which the release was closed
project_start	Project start date
project_end	Project end date

IEEE

Gem: relaton-ieeeInherits from: BibliographicItem

IEEE extensions capture committee structure and decompose IEEE publication identifiers into their semantic components.

Field	Type	Description
committee	Array<Committee>	IEEE committees associated with the document

Committee:

Field	Description
type	Committee type (e.g., sponsoring, balloting)
name	Committee name
chair	Chairperson of the committee

IEEE Publication Identifier — IEEE's PubId system decomposes identifiers into semantic parts: number, publisher, stage, part, status, approval, edition, draft, revision, corrigendum, amendment, redline, year, month. This supports precise parsing and comparison of IEEE document references.

Formal Model Definitions

Three flavors have dedicated formal model repositories with UML diagrams and schema definitions:

Flavor	Repository	Content
Base model	relaton-models	40+ entities, 10 UML diagrams, RelaxNG schemas
3GPP	relaton-model-3gpp	23 model files, UML diagram
IEEE	relaton-model-ieee	24 model files, UML diagram
W3C	relaton-model-w3c	3 model files, UML diagram

All use the same extension pattern: a flavor-specific class (e.g., IeeeBibliographicItem) inherits from the core BibliographicItem and adds domain-specific attributes.

View UML diagrams → | Extensions beyond ISO 690 →