Nikunj On May 13, 2009, at 11:39 AM, Nikunj Mehta wrote:
One of the challenges facing client developers, including us, is the limitless proliferation of rel values for atom:link. The problem is that everyone abuses the rel value mechanisms of atom:link. While we shouldn't attempt to stop this, where new public standards are being created we ought to act more prudently.Specifically, I suggest that new standard rel values be used for introducing new features in Atom's data model. For example, dealing with hierarchy/containment requires the use of new rel values because using any other value will completely trash the existing definition of that value.On the other hand, applications may use Atom's category term attribute to ascribe computer-readable meaning to the specific link. For example, CMIS shows a good number of such examples where a single folder entry can have children of four different kinds - policies, relationships, documents, and descendants [1].The IETF should not blindly register new link relation values for each of these types of children. Instead, the IETF should exhaust existing link relations or see if there is a need for a new general purpose link relation value. This way, the new value will have uses far beyond the specific application introducing that value.As an example, consider the following solution to the CMIS requirement where I am using hierarchy-ID's rel=detail and rel=related:<entry xmlns="..." xmlns:h=".../"> <title>A folder entry</title> <id>...</id> <updated>...</updated> <author><name>John Doe</name></author> <content src="..."/> <link rel="self" href="/folder;metadata"/> <link rel="edit" href="/folder;metadata"/> <link rel="detail" h:count="0" title="Folder children collection"href="/folder;contents/" term="http://www.oasis-open.org/cmis#contents "/><link rel="detail" h:count="0" title="Folder relationships collection"href="/folder;relationships/" term="http://www.oasis-open.org/cmis#relationships "/><link rel="detail" h:count="0" title="Folder policy collection"href="/folder;policies/" term="http://www.oasis-open.org/cmis#descendants "/><link rel="related" h:count="0" title="Folder descendants feed"href="/folder;descendants/" term="http://www.oasis-open.org/cmis#descendants "></entry>
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Nikunj R Mehta | Consulting Member of Technical Staff | Phone: +1 650 506 0679 | Blog: http://o-micron.blogspot.com
Oracle Advanced Development Projects 500 Oracle Parkway #4OP662 | Redwood Shores, CA 94065
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