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W3C Community Group Draft Report

Artifact

incubating

Status of this Document

This report was published by the User Journal Graph Community Group . It is not a W3C Standard nor is it on the W3C Standards Track. Please note that under the W3C Community Contributor License Agreement (CLA) there is a limited opt-out and other conditions apply. Learn more about W3C Community and Business Groups .

Last Update
2026-07-16
Editors
  • Seva Dolgopolov
Group
User Journal Graph Community Group
Repository
View Source
License
W3C-Software-and-Document

1. Overview

This optional module defines a minimal vocabulary for addressable artifacts that can participate as resources in a journey.

An artifact is a portable identity for a file, media object, archive, token, invite, report, protocol object, generated document, or other resource that participates in a journey. An Artifact is a concrete [UJG Effect] EffectResource, so effects can reference artifacts through generic producedRefs and consumedRefs. An artifact can also identify the source and target touchpoints where that resource is produced and consumed. The module does not define storage backends, transfer protocols, upload widgets, media processing, or artifact lifecycle state. Modules and profiles can specialize Artifact when they need more domain-specific semantics.

2. Terminology

  • Artifact: An addressable resource that may be produced, consumed, exchanged, or referenced during a journey.

  • Produced artifact: An artifact created, emitted, prepared, exported, generated, or made available by an Effect.

  • Consumed artifact: An artifact accepted, imported, read, redeemed, or otherwise used by an Effect.

  • Artifact source touchpoint: The touchpoint where an artifact is produced, exported, or made available.

  • Artifact target touchpoint: A touchpoint where an artifact is consumed, imported, redeemed, or otherwise used.

3. Artifact

An Artifact is an addressable portable resource identity and a concrete EffectResource. It can be referenced by producing or consuming effects, and it can identify source and target touchpoints when the resource crosses touchpoint boundaries. It does not define transfer, storage, rendering, security, or lifecycle semantics.

  1. An Artifact MUST be identified by an IRI.

  2. An Artifact MAY declare at most one sourceTouchpointRef.

  3. Every sourceTouchpointRef value MUST reference a Touchpoint.

  4. An Artifact MAY declare one or more targetTouchpointRefs.

  5. Every targetTouchpointRefs value MUST reference a Touchpoint.

  6. sourceTouchpointRef and targetTouchpointRefs MUST NOT create hidden Graph edges, change traversal behavior, assert delivery, or change Runtime event ordering.

classDiagram
  class Touchpoint
  class EffectResource
  class Artifact {
    id
    sourceTouchpointRef
    targetTouchpointRefs
  }
  EffectResource <|-- Artifact
  Artifact --> Touchpoint : sourceTouchpointRef
  Artifact --> "0..*" Touchpoint : targetTouchpointRefs

Example JSON node:

json 
{
  "@id": "urn:artifact:account-archive",
  "@type": "Artifact",
  "sourceTouchpointRef": "urn:touchpoint:old-server",
  "targetTouchpointRefs": ["urn:touchpoint:new-server"]
}
{
  "@id": "urn:artifact:account-archive",
  "@type": "Artifact",
  "sourceTouchpointRef": "urn:touchpoint:old-server",
  "targetTouchpointRefs": ["urn:touchpoint:new-server"]
}

4. Effect Integration

The Artifact module introduces two artifact-owned references:

  • artifact:sourceTouchpointRef links an Artifact to the Touchpoint where it is produced, exported, or made available.

  • artifact:targetTouchpointRefs links an Artifact to one or more Touchpoints where it is consumed, imported, redeemed, or otherwise used.

Production and consumption relationships are defined by [UJG Effect], not by this module. Effects use producedRefs and consumedRefs to point to Artifact nodes. Producers SHOULD NOT use those references to create hidden Graph traversal or to replace Graph Transition semantics.

Touchpoint metadata belongs to the Artifact, not the producing or consuming Effect. Effects declare only producedRefs and consumedRefs; the referenced artifact declares where it crosses touchpoint boundaries.

5. Non-Goals

Artifact does not define:

  • upload, download, or preview presentation

  • media-kind taxonomies

  • storage, CDN, filesystem, or database details

  • protocol delivery semantics

  • artifact lifecycle, freshness, or cache policy

  • validation of artifact payload contents

  • cross-touchpoint effect semantics beyond artifact-owned touchpoint metadata

The archived artifact implementation extension remains useful for generator-specific upload and preview hints, but those hints are not part of this module.

6. Normative Artifacts

This module is published through the following artifacts:

  • artifact.ttl: ontology, published at https://ujg.specs.openuji.org/ed/ns/artifact

  • artifact.context.jsonld: JSON-LD term mappings, published at https://ujg.specs.openuji.org/ed/ns/artifact.context.jsonld

  • artifact.shape.ttl: SHACL validation rules, published at https://ujg.specs.openuji.org/ed/ns/artifact.shape

Examples in this page compose the Core context with the Artifact context. Examples that use effects also compose the Effect context; examples that use touchpoint metadata also compose the Surface context.

6.1. Ontology

The normative Artifact ontology is defined below and is published at https://ujg.specs.openuji.org/ed/ns/artifact.

6.2. JSON-LD Context

The normative Artifact JSON-LD context is defined below and is published at https://ujg.specs.openuji.org/ed/ns/artifact.context.jsonld.

6.3. Validation

The normative Artifact SHACL shape is defined below and is published at https://ujg.specs.openuji.org/ed/ns/artifact.shape.

The rules below define the remaining module semantics beyond the structural constraints captured by the SHACL shape.

  1. Identity only: Artifact identifies a resource; it does not define transfer, storage, rendering, security, or lifecycle semantics.

  2. Effect resource: Artifact is a concrete EffectResource and MAY be referenced by Effect producedRefs or consumedRefs.

  3. Graph preservation: Artifact references MUST NOT create hidden graph edges or change Graph traversal behavior.

  4. Artifact-owned touchpoint metadata: sourceTouchpointRef and targetTouchpointRefs belong on Artifact, not on Effect; effects only produce or consume resources.

  5. Graceful degradation: Consumers that do not implement this module MAY ignore Artifact semantics, but SHOULD preserve recognized JSON-LD data during read-transform-write when possible.

7. Examples

7.1. Minimal Example

7.2. Cross-Touchpoint Artifact Example

This example models a federated share as the resource crossing touchpoints. Effects only declare whether they produce or consume that resource.