On 11 Feb 2007, at 15:11, Geoffrey Sneddon wrote:
The point is whether it:
a) Gets inserted into the <head>, and changes all the links in the
document.
b) Appears in some magic place, and changes the links in the HTML
fragment.
c) Gets ignored.
I'm personally in favour of b), as using the normal parsing rules
(placing it in <head>) may well end up changing more than what is
wanted. I'll do some testing of current implementations later.
So… the testing:
For reference, I'll note the behaviour as such:
1: Changes all links in the document.
2: Changes links in HTML fragment.
3: Changes nothing.
Test 1: http://software.hixie.ch/utilities/js/live-dom-viewer/?%3C%
21DOCTYPE%20html%3E%0A%3Cscript%20type%3D%22text/javascript%22%3E%
0Afunction%20insert_base%28%29%0A%7B%0A%09document.getElementById%28%
22insert%22%29.innerHTML%3D%22%3Cbase%20href%3D%27http%3A//
example.org/%27%3E%3Ca%20href%3D%27test%27%3Etest2%3C/a%3E%22%3B%0A%7D
%0A%3C/script%3E%0A%3Cbase%20href%3D%22http%3A//example.com/%22%3E%0A%
3Cp%3E%3Ca%20href%3D%22test%22%3ETest%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E%0A%3Cp%20id%3D%
22insert%22%3E%3Ca%20href%3D%22javascript%3Ainsert_base%28%29%22%
3Einsert%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Ca%20href%3D%22test%22%3ETest%3C/a
%3E%3C/p%3E
Safari 2.0.4/419.3: (1) Inserted in DOM (in the innerHTML location).
Firefox 2.0.0.1: (3) Inserted in DOM (in the innerHTML location).
IE/Mac 5.2.3: (2) (anyway to view the DOM tree?)
Opera 9.10: (1) DOM Snapshot for some reason isn't working.
IE6/Win: (2) The new <base> never appears in DOM, but the full
absolute URLs are in the DOM.
IE7/Win: (3) The new <base> never appears in DOM, but the full
absolute URLs are in the DOM.
Test 2 (this uses onclick to avoid escaping it as a URI): http://
software.hixie.ch/utilities/js/live-dom-viewer/?%3C%21DOCTYPE%20html%
3E%0A%3Cbase%20href%3D%22http%3A//example.com/%22%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Ca%
20href%3D%22test%22%3ETest%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E%0A%3Cp%20id%3D%22insert%22%
3E%3Ca%20onclick%3D%22document.getElementById%28%26quot%3Binsert%
26quot%3B%29.innerHTML%3D%26quot%3B%3Cbase%20href%3D%27http%3A//
example.org/%27%3E%3Ca%20href%3D%27test%27%3Etest2%3C/a%3E%26quot%3B%
22%3Einsert%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Ca%20href%3D%22test%22%3ETest%
3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Results the same as above.
In conclusion, Safari and Opera change all the links, IE5/Mac and IE6/
Win both change links within the fragment, and Firefox and IE7/Win
don't change any links.
- Geoffrey Sneddon
