Re: Content negotiation

Hello,

Jason White took an action item during last Thursday's call to draft a note
to add to A.14.4 regarding server content negotiation.  After a bit of
discussion, we conclude that there are two separate checkpoints.  Our
discussion follows:

JW::
>"Also, when providing multiple versions of the same information in
>different file formats, configure your server to take advantage of HTTP
>content negotiation mechanisms; this will enable a browser to retrieve
>files of the preferred type automatically." 
>
>Can you improve this?
>
::JW 

WC::
hmm, after rereading A.14.4 I have a few concerns.  Here is A.14.4: 

When linking to resources that are not W3C technologies, indicate what type
of resource you are linking to. For example, to link to a PDF file from an
HTML document, set the "type" attribute to "application/pdf" on the A
element. [Priority 3] 

Should we be limiting this only to technologies that are not W3C
recommendations?  It doesn't feel right.  Also, I really think these are
two separate issues and therefore we ought to have the following two
checkpoints:

When linking to resources, indicate what type of resource you are linking
to, espcially for non-W3C technologies.  For example, to link to a PDF file
from an HTML document, set the "type" attribute to "application/pdf" on the
A element. [Priority 3] 

When providing multiple versions of the same information in
different file formats, configure your server to take advantage of HTTP
content negotiation mechanisms.  This will enable a browser to retrieve
files of the preferred type automatically. For example, if linking to both
a PDF and HTML version of the same document, [do what?] [Priority 3]

Does this fit best in A.14?
::WC

thoughts?
--wendy

Received on Tuesday, 26 January 1999 11:34:37 UTC