Stream: implementers
Topic: code system changing url
Joelle McCarthy (Jan 09 2019 at 18:38):
I recently noticed that the link to the following Fhir ParticipationType code system is now dead: http://hl7.org/implement/standards/fhir/v3/ParticipationType/. I get a 403 "Directory Listing Denied". See the cached version at http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:HUrr10vJz8cJ:hl7.org/fhir/v3/ParticipationType/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us. After a bit of digging, I found the code system at a new location: https://www.hl7.org/fhir/v3/ParticipationType/cs.html.
We have been using the former uri as a code system in our Fhir system, and it is now deployed in hundreds of thousands of Resources. This means that all those links in our Resources are dead, making it problematic for Resource consumers to determine the meanings of the codes used.
My question is, would it be possible to set up forwarding from the old uri to the new one so that the links in our resources continue to work?
Lloyd McKenzie (Jan 09 2019 at 18:45):
That URL comes from before STU 1 came out 5 years ago. The standard wasn't even a standard for trial use at that point. Given that no one's complained or noticed in the last 4+ years and given that the specification wasn't even a standard at the time those URLs were published, it's pretty hard to justify undertaking the work. (That said, @Grahame Grieve do we have redirects for the more recent change for the v3 and v2 terminology URLs - those are much more widely used and were part of 3 official STU releases...)
Joelle McCarthy (Jan 09 2019 at 19:56):
Thanks for your response @Lloyd McKenzie. I didn't realize that was such an old url. It's not working appears to be quite a recent change. Google's cached version (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:HUrr10vJz8cJ:hl7.org/fhir/v3/ParticipationType/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us) is from December 23, 2018. Also, the release date on the cached page is 2016-11-11.
Is there some way to tell in general when a url is likely to be permanent? E.g., the working version of that code system I link above (https://www.hl7.org/fhir/v3/ParticipationType/cs.html) does not have an stu version in the url. Does that imply that it could also be phased out at some point?
Lloyd McKenzie (Jan 09 2019 at 20:04):
The http://hl7.org/fhir/v3/ParticipationType is no longer the canonical URL for that code system. It doesn't currently redirect, but as I mentioned in my note to Grahame above, we should probably set it up as one. In terms of how long we'll maintain that, I can't say - probably until DSTU2 and STU3 are no longer in significant use - which is probably at least 10 years from now.
The way to tell whether things are locked in stone is to look at their ballot status. If the status is "normative", that means you can count on it remaining the same. Anything else is potentially subject to going away/changing.
Joelle McCarthy (Jan 09 2019 at 20:14):
Hmm, what is the canonical url? I'm not seeing it anywhere else.
Thanks for that explanation, that's helpful.
Lloyd McKenzie (Jan 09 2019 at 20:18):
The canonical URL is the URL for the code system that appears on the wire in the Coding element
Joelle McCarthy (Jan 09 2019 at 20:52):
Understood. Thanks for your help!
Last updated: Apr 12 2022 at 19:14 UTC
