Linking to alternate representation in HTML responses using the Link element

Hi Aaron,
Hi all!

[Aaron, I'm pinging you more specifically on this because it seems that 
Google's transcoding proxy uses this mechanism, so you might be able to 
help with concrete practice here]

We talked a bit about using the "link" element in HTML responses in a 
previous call [1] and a bit on the mailing-list [2] to advertise the 
fact that:
  A) a page _has_ a mobile representation that may be requested
  B) a page _is_ a mobile representation of a resource

The linking mechanism seems simple in theory:
  <link rel="alternate" media="handheld" type="[content-type]" 
href="[uri]" />
as defined in the HTML4.01 spec [3]

In practice, this addresses A, but not B, IMHO, at least not directly. 
The definition of rel="alternate" [4] makes it clear that [uri] points 
to an alternative representation of the _document_, from which I 
understand that "linking to self" should not be permitted, at least not 
in theory. Am I wrong?
If I am, then [uri] can be the document itself, but then the questions 
Jo mentioned in [2] need to be answered to determine what constitutes a 
link to self:
- when the server uses redirection, does [uri] target the originally 
requested URI, the final one, any of them?
- what about query strings? It has to be part of [uri] if one is using 
"?experience=handheld", but aren't resources usually identified without 
the query string?


It occurs to me that we haven't discussed the "reverse linking" 
mechanism, that may help address B. If you have a main page "index.html" 
that contains a link such as:
  <link rel="section" href="section1.html">
then "section1.html" may identify itself as a section of "index.html" by 
defining:
  <link rev="section" href="index.html" />

Given "desktop.html" and "handheld.html", can we define:
  <link rel="alternate" media="handheld" type="application/xhtml+xml" 
href="handheld.html" />
in "desktop.html" and:
  <link rev="alternate" media="handheld" type="application/xhtml+xml" 
href="desktop.html" />
in "handheld.html" to state that "handheld.html" is the "handheld" 
representation of "desktop.html"?

I'd say yes, but I'm not quite sure this is a valid use of the "rev" 
mechanism.
(and I don't quite think that anyone really uses the "rev" mechanism at 
all actually, but that should not be such a problem).

Going back to the guidelines, I'd say:
A) if a _forward_ (rel) link with a "handheld" media attribute is 
encountered, the proxy should redirect the user to the alternate 
representation
B) if a _reverse_ (rev) link with a "handheld" media attribute is 
encountered, then that's it, we've found the handheld version!


[1] http://www.w3.org/2008/05/06-bpwg-minutes.html#item03
[2] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-bpwg-ct/2008May/0011.html
[3] http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-html401-19991224/struct/links.html#h-12.3
[4] http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-html401-19991224/types.html#type-links

Received on Friday, 16 May 2008 14:29:54 UTC