urn - Package offering URN creation and validation

Copyright (c) 2022, Geert JM Vanderkelen

The Go urn package creates and validates Uniform Resource Names (URNs) based on RFC8141.

Overview

Package urn helps to create valid URNs and offers functionality to parse or validate strings as URN based on RFC8141.

Quote from the RFC:

A Uniform Resource Name (URN) is a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that is assigned under the "urn" URI scheme and a particular URN namespace, with the intent that the URN will be a persistent, location-independent resource identifier.

This is a simple implementation and could probably use some performance tricks. We focus first to be compliant with the RFC.

Example URNs:

• urn:isbn:978-0135800911, with namespace isbn and specific string a book's ISBN13 978-0135800911
• urn:ietf:rfc:8141, the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) using URN namespace 'ietf' to reference the RFC (Request For Comment) on which this package is based on.

Quick Start

Examples can be found in the examples_test.go file.

Generating a URN

One can simply generate a URN using string concatenation. However, using the urn.New() function, the NID and NSS are validated.

package main

import (
  "fmt"
  "log"

  "github.com/golistic/urn"
)

func main() {
  u, err := urn.New("ietf", "rfc:8141")
  if err != nil {
    log.Fatalln(err)
  }
  fmt.Printf("%s", u)
}

Validating a URN

Using the urn.Validates you can simply check whether a URN is valid. The same can be achieved using urn.Parse and checking for errors.

package main

import (
  "fmt"

  "github.com/golistic/urn"
)

func main() {
  if urn.Validates("urn:ietf:rfc:8141#section-3") {
    fmt.Println("valid!")
  }

  if !urn.Validates("urn:ie+tf:rfc:8141#section-3") {
    fmt.Println("not valid!")
  }
}

License

Distributed under the MIT license. See LICENSE.txt for more information.