att.canonical

att.canonical provides attributes that can be used to associate a representation such as a name or title with canonical information about the object being named or referenced. [13.1.1. Linking Names and Their Referents]
Module tei
Members att.naming [att.personal [addName forename genName name objectName orgName persName placeName roleName surname] affiliation author collection editor nationality occupation pubPlace repository rs settlement] catDesc correspDesc docAuthor docTitle faith publisher resp respStmt term title
Attributes Attributes
ref (reference) provides an explicit means of locating a full definition or identity for the entity being named by means of one or more URIs.
Status Optional
Datatype 1–∞ occurrences of teidata.pointer separated by whitespace

<name ref="http://viaf.org/viaf/109557338" type="person">Seamus Heaney</name>
Note
The value must point directly to one or more XML elements or other resources by means of one or more URIs, separated by whitespace. If more than one is supplied the implication is that the name identifies several distinct entities.
Examples In this contrived example, a canonical reference to the same organisation is provided in four different ways.

<author n="1">
   
<name ref="http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/name-427308.html" type="organisation">New Zealand Parliament, Legislative Council</name>
</author>
    
   
<author n="2">
   
<name ref="nzvn:427308" type="organisation">New Zealand Parliament, Legislative Council</name>
</author>
       
   
<author n="3">
   
<name ref="./named_entities.xml#o427308" type="organisation">New Zealand Parliament, Legislative Council</name>
</author>
    
   
<author n="4">
   
<name key="name-427308" type="organisation">New Zealand Parliament, Legislative Council</name>
</author>
The first presumes the availability of an internet connection and a processor that can resolve a URI (most can). The second requires, in addition, a prefixDef that declares how the
nzvm
prefix should be interpreted. The third does not require an internet connection, but does require that a file named named_entities.xml be in the same directory as the TEI document. The fourth requires that an entire external system for key resolution be available.
Note
The key attribute is more flexible and general-purpose, but its use in interchange requires that documentation about how the key is to be resolved be sent to the recipient of the TEI document. In contrast values of the ref attribute are resolved using the widely accepted protocols for a URI, and thus less documentation, if any, is likely required by the recipient in data interchange.
These guidelines provide no semantic basis or suggested precedence when both key and ref are provided. For this reason simultaneous use of both is not recommended unless documentation explaining the use is provided, probably in an ODD customizaiton, for interchange.
Source Github

<classSpec rend="change" module="tei" type="atts" ident="att.canonical">
   
<desc>provides attributes that can be used to associate a representation such as a name or title
with canonical information about the object being named or referenced.
</desc>
   
<classes/>
   
<attList>
      
<attDef ident="ref" usage="opt">
         
<gloss>reference</gloss>
         
<desc>provides an explicit means of locating a full definition or identity for the entity being named by
    means of one or more URIs.
</desc>
         
<datatype minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="unbounded">
            
<dataRef key="teidata.pointer"/>
         
</datatype>
      
</attDef>
   
</attList>
</classSpec>