The domain name of the provider. This along with TableIdentity provides a unique key for the table. ProviderDomain exists for one reason - to ensure that two table names don't collide. The ProviderDomain establishes "who" owns the TableIdentity. Provider domain does not define "who owns the table." This is specifically, who owns the name for the table. A more real-world example within an organization might be that CompanyX would use one ProviderDomain for itself and one for each of its subsidiaries (CompanyY). Additionally, they may even append the name of the admin system (ADMINSYSX) and even the version to the ProviderDomain (2). Example ProviderDomains might include: COMPANYX.com/ADMINSYSX/2COMPANYY.com/VENDORX/2004ProviderDomain is not NECESSARILY an Internet URL - although that is probably the easiest thing to use. This is similar to the XML concept of a namespace. There's nothing that promises the ProviderDomain will EXIST as a URL (which is exactly the same concept as the W3C namespace). |