Concepts

ManagedConcept

A ManagedConcept is the top-level concept entity in Glossarist. It represents a single concept in the terminology registry. See the ManagedConcept entity definition for the authoritative field list.

Field	Type	Card.	Description
identifier	string	1..1	String identifier for the concept
uri	anyURI	0..1	URI for the concept
status	conceptStatus	0..1	Lifecycle status
related	RelatedConcept[]	0..*	Related concepts
dates	ConceptDate[]	0..*	Governance events
sources	ConceptSource[]	0..*	Concept-level sources
domains	Reference[]	0..*	Subject area references (rendered as <domain>)
tags	string[]	0..*	Organizational tags for grouping and filtering (not rendered as terminological domains)
localizations	LocalizedConcept{}	0..*	Per-language data (keyed by language code)

Tags vs domains

tags and domains look similar but serve different purposes:

• domains — Terminological subject-area references. Rendered as <domain> elements in TBX output and surfaced as subject-area classifications in the concept-browser.
• tags — Free-form organizational labels used for filtering, document structuring, and retrieval. Not rendered in terminological output.

termid: "3.1.1.1"
status: valid
domains:
  - { concept_id: "103", ref_type: "domain" }
tags: [time-scale-units, foundational]

LocalizedConcept

Localizations of the concept to different languages. Each language has its own definition, notes, examples, terms, and revision history. See the LocalizedConcept entity definition for the authoritative field list.

Field	Type	Card.	Description
language	string	0..1	ISO 639 3-letter language code
script	string	0..1	ISO 15924 4-letter script code
system	string	0..1	ISO 24229 conversion system code
designations	Designation[]	0..*	Terms under which the concept is known
definition	DetailedDefinition[]	0..*	Definitions
notes	DetailedDefinition[]	0..*	Notes
annotations	DetailedDefinition[]	0..*	Editorial annotations (distinct from notes)
examples	DetailedDefinition[]	0..*	Concept-level examples
entry_status	entryStatus	0..1	notValid, valid, superseded, or retired
classification	string	0..1	preferred, admitted, or deprecated
domain	anyURI	0..1	URI reference to the subject area
related	RelatedConcept[]	0..*	Per-language concept relationships
sources	ConceptSource[]	0..*	Per-language sources
references	Reference[]	0..*	Typed references
dates	ConceptDate[]	0..*	Per-language governance events
release	string	0..1	Release version
review_type	string	0..1	editorial or substantive
lineage_similarity	integer	0..1	Lineage similarity score

DetailedDefinition

A definition, note, example, or annotation with optional per-item sources and scoped sub-examples.

Field	Type	Card.	Description
content	string	1..1	The text content
sources	ConceptSource[]	0..*	Per-item sources
examples	DetailedDefinition[]	0..*	Examples scoped to this entry (VIM 1993 style nesting)

Scoped examples (VIM 1993 style)

Some vocabularies — notably the ISO/IEC VIM (International Vocabulary of Metrology) — nest examples inside the note or definition they elaborate on, rather than at the concept top level. Glossarist models this with examples on DetailedDefinition.

The two examples fields are MECE (mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive):

• LocalizedConcept.examples — concept-level examples, rendered as a flat list
• DetailedDefinition.examples — scoped to the surrounding note/definition

eng:
  definition:
    - content: "A property of a phenomenon, body, or substance"
      notes:
        - content: "Notes can themselves have examples"
          examples:
            - content: "Mass, weight, and volume are quantities"
      examples:
        - content: "Concept-level example, rendered as a flat list"

ConceptDate

A governance event in the concept lifecycle.

Field	Type	Card.	Description
date	dateTime	1..1	Date and time of the event
type	dateType	1..1	Event type (accepted, amended, retired, review, reviewDecision)
description	string	0..1	Event description

Concept lifecycle

Concepts follow a lifecycle through these statuses:

• draft — Initial proposed state
• submitted — Change request submitted for review
• valid — Accepted and current
• superseded — Replaced by a newer concept
• retired — No longer in use

Multi-language localization

A single ManagedConcept can have localizations in any number of languages. Different languages may assign the same abstract concept to different domains, and concept hierarchies can differ across languages.

ManagedConceptCollection

A collection for managed concepts. Includes the Ruby Enumerable module. Supports loading from and saving to YAML file datasets.

See the YAML Schema Reference for the complete JSON Schema definitions, the Entity Field Reference for all entity types with types, cardinality, and allowed values, and the Standards compliance reference for how each ISO standard maps to Glossarist entities.