- From: Henrik Dvergsdal <henrik.dvergsdal@hibo.no>
- Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 12:17:19 +0200
- To: public-html@w3.org
> Can you please define what exactly you mean by multipart responses > in HTML? Everyone who has responded seems to understand but I > still can't derive your meaning from the context. Ideally, can you > also provide a short little example? There is an article in wikipedia that explains the basic concepts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIME HTML currently supports the MIME type multipart/form-data in HTTP requests. This is primarily used to upload files. What I suggest is to add support for the MIME type multipart/related (or perhaps multipart/mixed) in HTTP *response* messages. This would allow inclusion of scripts, stylesheets, media and other types of resources in web pages/applications as attachments in a single response so that they don't have to be downloaded separately. Within HTML we would need a syntax for refering to attached resources rather than URL's. Maybe something like this: ... ? <img src="attached:apple.jpg"/> Some usage scenarios: * Media protection. By embedding media as attachments, users can raise the barrier towards theft or abuse, especially if they are also provided with mechanisms to disable right-clicking etc. in the client. * Preloading. Developers can embed critical (small sized) components of pages/applications to ensure that they are up-to-date and immediately available. * Simplification of server side applications. Developers can manage resources (generated media content, binary data, xml data etc.) within a single application rather than having to create separate applications to generate external downloads. The discussion so far has revealed some issues that need to be resolved: * Caching issues * Ethics of providing mechanisms to protect/hide content on web pages * Practical value in terms of protecting/hiding * Practical value in terms of preloading * Cost of implementation
Received on Thursday, 29 March 2007 10:17:46 UTC