CODEWITHSUNDEEP
hl7-fhir
Jason S.
Jason S.

Reputation: 520

Is the canonical URI a business identifier or a logical one?

The documentation for canonical states that it is "is a special kind of Business Identifier" but then goes on to say "The canonical URL serves as a stable logical identifier for the resource". I understand the difference between the two types of identifiers, but it's unclear to me which I am suppose to use for canonicals.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 319

Answers (1)

Lloyd McKenzie
Lloyd McKenzie

Reputation: 6793

The canonical identifier is the stable URI assigned by the source of truth which is the sole mechanism of referencing the resource via the canonical data type - which is the primary mechanism of referencing canonical resources. It is a 'logical' identifier in that there is no requirement for it to resolve (though it's nice if it does). It is a 'business' identifier in that it can be shared by different instances on different servers and always refers to the same business object and isn't expected to have any correlation to the resource identifier of the instance on any given server.

Upvotes: 1

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