Tombstone "formerType" Property Range Needs Clarification

[cjslep]

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(I am splitting my email to the public-socialweb mailing list into separate issues, for background please see those emails).

This is ActivityStream vocabulary specific: https://www.w3.org/TR/activitystreams-vocabulary

The Tombstone "formerType" property lists "Object" as its range, but based on examples it looks like it should have the same range as the "type" property, which is anyURI. That is, it is unclear what putting an entire "Object" type into the "formerType" property would effectively mean.

[evanp]

I think @gobengo 's patch is probably the correct way to deal with this issue. It adds support for xsd:anyURI, but does not remove Object as a potential range. That will allow the correct use (a type id) in this property, but not make unusable any existing implementations that use Object instead.

I propose merging @gobengo 's patch.

[bumblefudge]

(Discussed on today's SWIGCG call)
+1 I think it's standard procedure to do what Ben's proposing in cases where document/code/schemata are accidentally more constrictive than (or don't match) spec requirements, i.e. allow intended behavior (in this case, anyURI but ideally valid types only) but not break implementations already built with unintended behavior (in this case, putting in a whole object).

I would also recommend renaming this issue and leaving it open in case a new version of AP spec gets chartered down the road, as the unintended behavior should be deprecated in future spec and removed from future Context.