RelatedProduct
RIXML 2.5 Element
Establishes explicit relationships between research products, documenting how content in one product connects to or depends on content in other products. Supports various relationship types from translations to prerequisites.
Describes how content contained in this product is associated with other products, or how content in other products is associated with this one. Can have none or any number of relationships to other products.
Usage
Optional element with multiple instances allowed. Requires relatedProductID matching another Product's productID and relationshipType from enumeration. Use RelationshipDescription for additional context about the specific relationship.
Business Context
Essential for research series management, translation tracking, and content dependency mapping. Enables research platforms to present related content recommendations and maintain research narrative continuity across publications.
Specification Guide
Overview
RelatedProduct establishes an explicit relationship between the current research product and another research product, documenting how the two items are connected (for example as a translation, update, prerequisite, replacement, or supplement). It is the primary mechanism in RIXML for expressing product-to-product linkage, enabling research lineage, series management, translation tracking, and cross-referencing between publications (sources: data-dictionary-2.4 p.23, data-dictionary-2.5.1 p.23, user-guide-2.3 p.15).
Usage
RelatedProduct is an optional child of Product and may appear multiple times, once per related-product relationship being declared (sources: user-guide-2.1 p.15, user-guide-2.2 p.15, data-dictionary-2.4 p.23).
Each instance carries two required attributes:
- relatedProductID — references the productID of another product.
- relationshipType — a value from ProductRelationshipTypeEnum specifying the nature of the link.
An optional RelationshipDescription child may be included to provide free-text context for the specific relationship (sources: data-dictionary-2.4 p.23, data-dictionary-2.5.1 p.23, user-guide-2.2 p.15).
In the v3.0 draft, RelatedProduct is housed within a RelatedProductList wrapper and is extended with optional SecurityID and IssuerID child aggregations, allowing publishers to pinpoint the specific issuer or security that ties two products together. v3.0 also adds target-language elements to support translation relationships explicitly (sources: data-dictionary-v3-draft p.62, data-dictionary-v3-draft p.64).
Rules
- MUSTRelatedProduct MUST carry a relatedProductID that references a valid productID of another product.[RIXML Research Data Dictionary v2.5.1 p.23] [RIXML Research Data Dictionary v2.4 p.23]
- MUSTRelatedProduct MUST specify a relationshipType drawn from ProductRelationshipTypeEnum to characterise the link.[RIXML Research Data Dictionary v2.4 p.23] [RIXML Research Data Dictionary v2.5.1 p.23] [RIXML v3 Enum Review 7: Components, Episodes, Related Products p.2]↗
- INFORMATIVERelatedProduct is not required by RIXML Level One compliance; Level One implementations are not expected to populate product-to-product relationships, though their presence does not by itself break Level One processing.[RIXML Level One Addendum v2.5 p.6] [RIXML Level One Addendum v2.5 p.24]
Relationships
- child-ofProduct — RelatedProduct is an optional, repeatable child of Product (and is wrapped in a
RelatedProductListin v3.0). - requiresProduct.productID — The relatedProductID value must match the productID of the product being referenced.
- qualifiesProductRelationshipTypeEnum — The semantic of each RelatedProduct is supplied by a value from ProductRelationshipTypeEnum (e.g. BasedOn, PartOf, Replaces, Translation).
- containsSecurityID — In v3.0, RelatedProduct may contain SecurityID to identify the specific security that connects the two products.
- containsIssuerID — In v3.0, RelatedProduct may contain IssuerID to identify the specific issuer that connects the two products.
Where It Fits
Definition
| Type | |
| Namespace | http://www.rixml.org/2017/9/RIXML |
| Min Occurs | 1 |
| Max Occurs | 1 |
Attributes
relatedProductIDstring |
The unique productID of the product to which this product is related (as stored in Product.productID of the related document) requiredSince 2.1 |
relationshipTypeProductRelationshipTypeEnum |
Indicates the type of relationship between this product and another product. requiredSince 2.1 |
Children
RelationshipDescriptionstring0..1 |
The description of the relationship between the current product and the other product to which it is related. optionalSince 2.1 |
Example
<RelatedProduct relatedProductID="f47ac10b-58cc-4372-a567-0e02b2c3d479"
relationshipType="Value" />Version History
Unchanged since introduction in RIXML 2.1
2.0–2.3: RelatedProduct is defined as an optional, repeatable child of Product (and analogously surfaces in interaction contexts via a RelatedProducts container in the 2.0 interactions dictionary) with required relatedProductID and relationshipType attributes and an optional RelationshipDescription (sources: data-dictionary-interactions-2.0 p.24, user-guide-2.1 p.15, user-guide-2.2 p.15, user-guide-2.3 p.15).
2.4–2.5: Behaviour and structure are stable; relationshipType is anchored to ProductRelationshipTypeEnum (sources: data-dictionary-2.4 p.23, data-dictionary-2.5.1 p.23). The 2.5 Level One profile does not require RelatedProduct, simplifying minimal-compliance implementations (sources: level-one-2.5 pp.6, 24).
3.0 (draft): RelatedProduct is wrapped in a RelatedProductList, gains optional SecurityID and IssuerID child aggregations to express which specific issuer or security links the two products, and adds target-language elements to model translation relationships more explicitly (sources: data-dictionary-v3-draft pp.62, 64). At the same time, ProductRelationshipTypeEnum is pruned of values that describe *content type* rather than relationship nature — including Model, IndustryReport, and InitiationReport — on the basis that report purpose is better expressed through other tagging mechanisms such as form, References, action, and focus [v3-enum-review-07-components p.2].
Design Decisions
Level One excludes RelatedProduct elements as children of Product
To simplify the Level One implementation by removing complex product relationship structures
RIXML Level One Addendum v2.5, p.6
RelatedProduct elements are not permitted in Level One
To substantially reduce complexity for both publishers and vendors, alleviating implementation costs
RIXML Level One Addendum v2.5, p.24
Semantic Relationships
Requires1 relationship
Related product references must link to valid product IDs through the relatedProductID attribute, establishing connections between associated research items
RIXML Research Data Dictionary v2.5.1, p.23— RelatedProduct