One of the principles adopted when creating an IMS specification is that the solution must be extensible. While the use of extensions limits interoperability, no specification is the perfect fit for all deployments. In many cases, localisations are required to get full interoperability. Including such localisations would make the specification too complex for broad adoption. The form of the ways in which extensibility is provided varies depending of the technology base of the interoperability: extending a JSON payload is different from extending a CSV file, or an XML payload, etc. When the IMS provided extensions mechanisms are used it is also possible for IMS to create tailored versions of our Conformance Test Systems to test compliance with those extensions. Bracken will give an overview of the ways in which IMS specifications can be extended so that local requirements can be supported using the same interoperability solution. He will then introduce the new IMS Extensions Framework which brings together all of the available extension mechanisms into a single reference document. All of the IMS specifications will then be required to reference and adopt the extensions mechanism suitable. As new specifications are created and new versions of published specifications are created, the many approaches to extensibility will be rationalised. These, standardised extensibility patterns will make it easier to extend an IMS specification to meet your localisation needs.
