Archetype Definition Language 1.4 (ADL1.4)

Acknowledgements

Primary Author

  • Thomas Beale, Ocean Informatics UK; openEHR Architecture Review Board (ARB)

Contributors

Thanks to Sebastian Garde, Central Qld University, Australia, for German translations.

Trademarks

  • 'Microsoft' and '.Net' are registered trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation.

  • 'Java' is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation

  • 'Linux' is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

  • 'openEHR' is a registered trademark of The openEHR Foundation

  • 'SNOMED CT' is a registered trademark of IHTSDO

Supporters

The work reported in this paper has been funded by the following organisations:

  • UCL (University College London) - Centre for Health Informatics and Multiprofessional Education (CHIME);

  • Ocean Informatics.

Special thanks to Prof David Ingram, founding Director of CHIME, UCL, who provided a vision and collegial working environment ever since the days of GEHR (1992).

Preface

Purpose

This document describes the design basis and syntax of the Archetype Definition Language 1.4 (ADL 1.4). It is intended for software developers, technically-oriented domain specialists and subject matter experts (SMEs). ADL is designed as an abstract human-readable and computer-processible syntax. ADL archetypes can be hand-edited using a normal text editor.

The intended audience includes:

  • Standards bodies producing health informatics standards;

  • Academic groups using openEHR;

  • The open source healthcare community;

  • Solution vendors;

  • Medical informaticians and clinicians interested in health information.

Related Documents

Prerequisite documents for reading this document include:

Related documents include:

Nomenclature

In this document, the term 'attribute' denotes any stored property of a type defined in an object model, including primitive attributes and any kind of relationship such as an association or aggregation. XML 'attributes' are always referred to explicitly as 'XML attributes'.

Status

This specification is in the STABLE state. The development version of this document can be found at https://specifications.openehr.org/releases/AM/development/ADL1.4.html.

Known omissions or questions are indicated in the text with a 'to be determined' paragraph, as follows:

TBD: (example To Be Determined paragraph)

this specification is a re-formatted issue of the original ADL 1.4 Specification from openEHR Release 1.0.2. There are slight changes in formatting, citations and other references, corrections to typographical errors and changed syntax colourisation due to the use of more modern language-based syntax colourisers in the publishing tools.
for users requiring the most recent form of ADL and archetype technology in general, the Archetype Definition Language 2 (ADL2) specifications should be used. In particular, the Archetype Technology Overview should be referred to for the most current description of Archetype Technology.

Feedback

Feedback may be provided on the openEHR ADL forum.

Issues may be raised on the specifications Problem Report tracker.

To see changes made due to previously reported issues, see the AM component Change Request tracker.

Conformance

Conformance of a data or software artifact to an openEHR specification is determined by a formal test of that artifact against the relevant openEHR Implementation Technology Specification(s) (ITSs), such as an IDL interface or an XML-schema. Since ITSs are formal derivations from underlying models, ITS conformance indicates model conformance.

Tools

Various tools exist for creating and processing archetypes. The ADL Workbench is a reference compiler, visualiser and editor. The openEHR tools can be downloaded from the website .

Source projects can be found at the openEHR Github project.

Amendment Record

Issue Details Raiser, Implementer Completed

AM Release 2.3.0

1.4.6

SPECAM-84. Fix typos in AOM, ADL 1.4.

R Kavanagh

03 Apr 2023

1.4.5

SPECAM-75. Improve specification of constraint patterns (addresses problem SPECPR-374). Modified [date_time_constraint_patterns] to include timezone constraints.

P Pazos,
T Beale

20 Dec 2022

1.4.4

SPECAM-69. Support negative durations (see also SPECRM-96); add examples in [_duration_constraints].

P Bos,
S Garde

09 Sep 2020

1.4.3

SPECPUB-7: Convert citations to bibtex form.

T Beale

15 Dec 2019

AM Release 2.2.0

AM Release 2.1.0

AM Release 2.0.6

1.4.2

SPECAM-24: Standardise structure for recording governance meta-data in 1.4 archetypes.
Added appendix describing extension meta-data.

S Garde,
H Leslie,
I McNicoll,
S Ljosland Bakke,
T Beale

22 May 2016

Release 1.0.2

1.4.1

SPEC-268: Correct missing parentheses in dADL type identifiers. dADL grammar and cADL scanner rules updated.

R Chen

12 Dec 2008

SPEC-284: Correct inconsistencies in naming of term_definitions, constraint_definitions, term_bindings, constraint_bindings attributes in XML-schema and specifications.
Improved explanatory text for composite identifiers, including statement on case-sensitivity. Warning on .v1draft non-conformance

A Torrisi

SPEC-260: Correct the regex published for the ARCHETYPE_ID type. Update ADL grammar ARCHEYTPE_ID definition.

P Gummer,
J Arnett,
E Browne

Release 1.0.1

1.4.0

SPEC-203: Release 1.0 explanatory text improvements. Improve Archetype slot explanation.

T Beale

13 Mar 2007

SPEC-208: Improve ADL grammar for assertion expressions.

T Beale

SPEC-160: Duration constraints. Added ISO 8601 patterns for duration in cADL.

S Heard

SPEC-213: Correct ADL grammar for date/times to be properly ISO8601-compliant. Include 'T' in cADL patterns and dADL and cADL Date/time, Time and Duration values.

T Beale

SPEC-216: Allow mixture of W, D etc in ISO8601 Duration (deviation from standard).

S Heard

SPEC-200: Correct Release 1.0 typographical errors.

A Patterson
R Chen
S Garde
T Beale

SPEC-225: Allow generic type names in ADL.

M Forss

SPEC-226: Rename C_CODED_TEXT to C_CODE_PHRASE

T Beale

SPEC-233: Define semantics for occurrences on ARCHETYPE_INTERNAL_REF.

K Atalag

SPEC-241: Correct cADL grammar for archeype slot match expressions

S Heard

SPEC-223: Clarify quoting rules in ADL

A Patterson

SPEC-242: Allow non-inclusive two-sided ranges in ADL.

S Heard

SPEC-245: Allow term bindings to paths in archetypes.

S Heard

Release 1.0

1.3.1

SPEC-136. Add validity rules to ADL document.

T Beale

18 Jan 2006

SPEC-171. Add validity check for cardinality & occurrences

A Maldondo

1.3.0

SPEC-141. Allow point intervals in ADL. Updated atomic types part of cADL section and dADL grammar section.

S Heard

18 Jun 2005

SPEC-142. Update dADL grammar to support assumed values.
SPEC-143. Add partial date/time values to dADL syntax.
SPEC-149. Add URIs to dADL and remove query() syntax.
SPEC-153. Synchronise ADL and AOM for language attributes
SPEC-156. Update documentation of container types.
SPEC-138. Archetype-level assertions.

T Beale

Release 0.95

1.2.1

SPEC-125. C_QUANTITY example in ADL manual uses old dADL syntax.
SPEC-115. Correct "/[xxx]" path grammar error in ADL.
Create new section describing ADL path syntax.
SPEC-127. Restructure archetype specifications. Remove clinical constraint types section of document.

T Beale

11 Feb 2005

1.2

SPEC-110. Update ADL document and create AOM document.

T Beale

15 Nov 2004

Added explanatory material; added domain type support; rewrote of most dADL sections. Added section on assumed values, "controlled" flag, nested container structures. Change language handling.
Rewrote OWL section based on input from: University of Manchester, UK; University Seville, Spain.

A Rector
R Qamar
I Román Martínez

Various changes to assertions due to input from the DSTC.

A Goodchild
Z Z Tun

Detailed review from Clinical Information Project, Australia.

E Browne

Remove UML models to "Archetype Object Model" document.

T Beale

Detailed review from CHIME, UCL.

T Austin

SPEC-103. Redevelop archetype UML model, add new keywords: allow_archetype, include, exclude.

T Beale

SPEC-104. Fix ordering bug when use_node used. Required parser rules for identifiers to make class and attribute identifiers distinct.

K Atalag

Added grammars for all parts of ADL, as well as new UML diagrams.

T Beale

Release 0.9

1.1

SPEC-79. Change interval syntax in ADL.

T Beale

24 Jan 2004

1.0

SPEC-77. Add cADL date/time pattern constraints.
SPEC-78. Add predefined clinical types. Better explanation of cardinality, occurrences and existence.

S Heard,
T Beale

14 Jan 2004

0.9.9

SPEC-73. Allow lists of Reals and Integers in cADL.
SPEC-75. Add predefined clinical types library to ADL.
Added cADL and dADL object models.

T Beale,
S Heard

28 Dec 2003

0.9.8

SPEC-70. Create Archetype System Description. Moved Archetype Identification Section to new Archetype System document. Copyright Assgined by Ocean Informatics P/L Australia to The openEHR Foundation.

T Beale,
S Heard

29 Nov 2003

0.9.7

Added simple value list continuation (",…​"). Changed path syntax so that trailing '/' required for object paths.
Remove ranges with excluded limits.
Added terms and term lists to dADL leaf types.

T Beale

01 Nov 2003

0.9.6

Additions during HL7 WGM Memphis Sept 2003

T Beale

09 Sep 2003

0.9.5

Added comparison to other formalisms. Renamed CDL to cADL and dDL to dADL. Changed path syntax to conform (nearly) to Xpath. Numerous small changes.

T Beale

03 Sep 2003

0.9

Rewritten with sections on cADL and dDL.

T Beale

28 July 2003

0.8.1

Added basic type constraints, re-arranged sections.

T Beale

15 July 2003

0.8

Initial Writing

T Beale

10 July 2003

Sections