RE: Prerender definition in html5 spec

I support this idea :)

If others support it also, please open a bug for the editors to add it.

________________________________
From: Arvind Jain <arvind@google.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2013 6:38 PM
To: public-html@w3.org
Subject: Prerender definition in html5 spec


I'd like to propose adding link type "prerender" to the html5 specification. It is similar in nature to the existing link type "prefetch" in the specification.

The "prerender" keyword is meant to be a hint to the browser to load a webpage in anticipation of a user navigation. It's implemented in Chrome and IE11 as an experimental feature.

We discussed this in the Web Performance working group:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-web-perf/2013Jun/0013.html

I've written below the proposed addition to the html5 spec below. Please let me know if you have any comments on it and what would be the next step in considering this addition to the spec.
Thanks,
Arvind

4.13.5.10 Link type "prerender"

The prerender keyword may be used with a link<http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/single-page.html#the-link-element>, a<http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/single-page.html#the-a-element>, and area<http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/single-page.html#the-area-element> elements. This keyword creates an external resource link<http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/single-page.html#external-resource-link>.

The prerender keyword indicates that preemptively fetching and loading the specified resource in a hidden top-level browsing context<http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/single-page.html#top-level-browsing-context> is likely to be beneficial, as it is highly likely that the user will navigate to this resource. If the resource is navigated to, the user agent may replace the current browsing context with the one it loaded the specified resource in.

The user agent may discard the browsing context corresponding to the prerendered resource if any of the following is true:

  *   If the resource is not navigated to within a reasonable amount of time.
  *   If the user navigates to some other resource from the current browsing context.
  *   If the link element is removed from the document.

There is no default type for resources given by the prerender keyword.