Re: Question about the On Linking Alternative Representations TAG Finding

ext Booth, David (HP Software - Boston) wrote:
>> From: Richard Cyganiak [ . . . ] Let's say I have
>> 
>> /resource      (generic information resource with HTML and JSON 
>> variants) /resource.html (a HTML specific URI) /resource.json (a
>> JSON specific URI)
>> 
>> Now let's say I request /resource.json with an Accept header of 
>> "Accept: text/html". What should happen?
>> 
>> One opinion is that the JSON should be served anyway, because the
>> URI identifies a specific variant.
> 
> I think serving the JSON is the best option.  Serving HTML from
> /resource.json would defeat the purpose of having a JSON-specific
> URI.   It is quite likely that the user pasted the JSON URI into a
> browser to test it, and *wants* to see the JSON that is returned.
> Everyone knows how to paste a URI into a browser; few know how to
> configure their browsers to specify their desired MIME types.

One point to note here is that if you *do* return JSON to a browser, and 
you give it the MIME media type 'application/json', that even if the 
user *wants* to see the JSON in her browser, she may be disappointed. 
Last time I looked, I was prompted to download things of that type, 
rather than 'seeing' them in my browser.

Servers might wish to consider that when performing content negotiation 
with a user-agent.

Cheers,

- johnk

> 
> 
> David Booth, Ph.D. HP Software +1 617 629 8881 office  |
> dbooth@hp.com http://www.hp.com/go/software
> 
> Statements made herein represent the views of the author and do not
> necessarily represent the official views of HP unless explicitly so
> stated.
>