Forest EMS Support Systems

EMS File Names and Path Names for Intra- and Internet: Suggestions

Following the lead of the WO (who put "/ems" right after "www.fs.fed.us," we should try to keep both file names and path names as simple and close to the "root" as possible. Some preliminary ideas/recommendations:

Intranet:

Paths:
http://fsweb.r4.fs.fed.us/ems/
http://fsweb.manti-lasal.r4.fs.fed.us/ems/
…/index.html (main display page(s))
…/guide.??? (main reference "document")
…/4.2/, 4.3.1/, etc. (most other subdirectories)
…/links (etc. for other "misc." stuff)

Filing:
J:\fsfiles\ref\infocenter\fsweb\ems\

Internet:

Paths: http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/ems/

Filing: ???

File Name Conventions:

• use only lower case alphanumeric characters – avoid special characters like < > : " /\ | \/ * ?


• use "." only at root, e.g fsweb.r4…, for ISO elements, and to separate files from extensions, e.g. ".doc", ".html" (Note: this is only a recommendation. If we wanted instead to not separate ISO sub-elements by "." we could do so. Alternatively we could use the "." elsewhere beyond the root, the ISO element, and the extension).


• use "_" to separate words (Only a recommendation)


• name documents simply (and compactly) within categories: e.g. since 4.3.3 names "objectives and targets," a document listing a forests objectives and targets might be name "obj_tar.html" or "obj_tar.doc" or "obj_tar.pdf" or ??? (Only a recommendation)


• "dates" are problematic, but if used in file names, say for "records," the format should be yymmdd (or yyyymmdd?) to allow for easy sorting. (Only a recommendation. But if we are going to allow "dates," folks should choose one or the other. We could use dates for "ISO documents" as well as "records," but we want to avoid having to frequently change all our intranet and internet linkages. Right now I recommend against using dates at all in file names.)

File and Path Naming Conventions

To effectively structure web-based and other information systems I believe we need naming conventions for all levels (at least to the Forest level) for EMS files and paths to those files (URL path conventions and/or filing conventions).

I have been trying to dig up some current conventions, to see if any exist in the FS, in the broader ISO community or elsewhere that might help us.

What I have found so far as per file (and path) naming conventions is that we ought to:

• Use only lower case characters


• Have no blank spaces, but rather use the underscore symbol to fill in blanks "_"
  
• Reserve periods "." to precede the type file represented.
  
• As per "dates," I'm still perplexed. I'm guessing that most file management systems somehow embed dates in metadata so that managers don't have to change the date on the file name all the time. But I don't know.

In addition to file naming conventions, path names for filing would be helpful too. That way web managers throughout the agency can know in advance where to look for files. That too can be quite empowering.

I found too that at least in some circles we already have conventions for WO, Regions and Forests:

• "wo" or "00"
• "r01, 2, … 10" or "01, 02, ...,10"
• Beaverhead/Deerlodge NF = "r01_bd," or "r01bd," or simply "0102" for example

Short names, like this, have been developed for for all forests. Are they now standard? What else is standard? Is there a unique or a preferred standard? What other standards might we agree on for things not already standard?