DOI Applications > Dynamic Identification of the Fragments of an Entity

In some cases, applications may require the identification of fragments of an entity, rather than the full entity. Each such fragment may be assigned a separate DOI name if it is practical and useful to do so (for example, if a specific table within a book is likely to be re-used many times). However, this may not always be possible: there are also cases where one wishes to identify in principle any fragment of this entity as it becomes needed on the fly. For such cases, use may be made of Template Handles (see section 11 in the Handle.net Technical Manual): a single template DOI Handle can be included in the form of a base formula that allows any number of extensions to that base to be resolved as full DOI Handles, according to a pattern, without each such Handle being individually registered. This would allow, for example, the use of DOI names to reference an unlimited number of ranges within a video without each potential range having to be registered with a separate Handle. If the pattern needs to be changed, for example, the video moves or a different kind of server is used to deliver the video clips, only the single base DOI name (Handle) needs to be changed to allow an unlimited number of previously constructed extensions to continue to resolve properly.