Re: JSON-LD in HTML

On Mar 17, 2013, at 7:38 AM, "Markus Lanthaler" <markus.lanthaler@gmx.net> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> just saw this thread and haven't thought much about it yet.. So just two
> questions (no offence intended):

(Why would I take offense to perfectly reasonable questions ?)

> - What problem are why trying to solve here? I mean which use case are we
> trying to address? Why would someone want to embed JSON-LD in HTML? I
> haven't seen much JSON embedded into HTML in the wild.. and JSON is
> extremely popular.

As I mentioned in the lead-in, HTML-based markup for expressing meta-data (think SEO) has been shown to be error-prone. Embedding JSON-LD is useful as an alternative to RDFa/microdata which is hopefully less error prone. Plus, an advantage of JSON-LD, is that common problems in expression can often be addressed by updating the context.

> - If we are embedding JSON-LD (not JSON), why do we need to add another
> mechanism to reference a context? People embedding JSON-LD obviously need to
> understand it.. so what's the problem with @context?

Good question. One reason is that when multiple objects are used, particularly when flattened, this requires using the @graph key in the top-level object. Anything else (other than @context) may change the meaning of the data. And, you might reasonably think that if the subtleties of microdata are challenging, the the subtleties of @graph may also be challenging, adding the context to the container means that multiple objects can just be expressed in array form, without needing @graph. The idea is to make it as easy as possible for people to express metadata in HTML, and I think this comes pretty close.

Gregg

> Cheers,
> Markus
> 
> 
> --
> Markus Lanthaler
> @markuslanthaler
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Ivan Herman [mailto:ivan@w3.org]
>> Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2013 12:28 PM
>> To: Niklas Lindström
>> Cc: Gavin Carothers; Gregg Kellogg; public-rdf-wg@w3.org WG; JSON-LD
>> JSON
>> Subject: Re: JSON-LD in HTML
>> 
>> 
>> On Mar 17, 2013, at 12:13 , Niklas Lindström <lindstream@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> How about:
>>> 
>>>   <link rel="http://www.w3.org/ns/json-ld#context"
>>> href="http://schema.org/context.jsonld" />
>>> 
>>> Perhaps more precise with an @about and a script @id, like:
>>> 
>>>   <link about="#jsonld" rel="http://www.w3.org/ns/json-ld#context"
>>> href="http://schema.org/context.jsonld" />
>>>   <script type="application/ld+json" id="jsonld">...</script>
>> 
>> The goal is to make JSON-LD palatable and usable for people outside
>> 'our' community. I am a little bit afraid that this approach would lead
>> to errors (missing <link> statements, that sort of things).
>> 
>> :-(
>> 
>> Ivan
>> 
>>> 
>>> Cheers,
>>> Niklas
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Sun, Mar 17, 2013 at 11:46 AM, Ivan Herman <ivan@w3.org> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> On Mar 17, 2013, at 04:13 , Gavin Carothers <gavin@carothers.name>
>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 2:08 PM, Gregg Kellogg
>> <gregg@greggkellogg.net> wrote:
>>>>> (Retry, as my mailer seemed to have chosen a personal email address
>> to send it out before. Sorry if it comes twice).
>>>>> 
>>>>> This proposal provides a means for embedding JSON-LD in HTML
>> documents, =
>>>>> much in the same way that Turtle can be embedded in HTML documents.
>> This =
>>>>> is important for certain constituencies who have shown problems in
>> =
>>>>> providing correct RDFa or microdata, but who are familiar with
>> JSON. =
>>>>> Embedding JSON-LD in HTML, along with a JSON-LD context, allows
>> fairly =
>>>>> straight-forward JSONto be used for specifying metadata within an
>> HTML =
>>>>> document.
>>>>> 
>>>>> The use of the @data-context attribute below is not ideal, as
>> @data-* =
>>>>> attributes are intended for use by other specifications, but it
>> seems =
>>>>> inappropriate to either re-purpose some existing HTML (or
>> HTML+RDFa) =
>>>>> attribute, or to define a new attribute specifically for this
>> narrow =
>>>>> case.
>>>>> 
>>>>> After section 6.8 in JSON-LD Syntax, add the following section:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Section 6.9 (new/non-normative) Embedding JSON-LD in HTML documents
>>>>> 
>>>>> HTML script tags can be used to embed blocks of data in documents.
>> =
>>>>> JSON-LD can be easily embedded in HTML this way.
>>>>> 
>>>>> <script type=3D"application/ld+json">
>>>>> {
>>>>> "@context": {
>>>>> "@vocab": "http://purl.org/vocab/frbr/core#",
>>>>> "@language": "en",
>>>>> "dc": "http://purl.org/dc/terms/",
>>>>> },
>>>>> "@id": "http://books.example.com/works/45U8QJGZSQKDH8N",
>>>>> "@type": "Work",
>>>>> "dc:creator": "Wil Wheaton",
>>>>> "dc:title": "Just a Geek",
>>>>> "realization": [{
>>>>> "@id": "http://books.example.com/products/9780596007683.BOOK",
>>>>> "@type": "Expression";
>>>>> "dc:type": "http://books.example.com/product-types/BOOK"
>>>>> }, {
>>>>> "@id": "http://books.example.com/products/9780596802189.EBOOK"
>>>>> "dc:type": "http://books.example.com/product-types/EBOOK"
>>>>> }]
>>>>> }
>>>>> </script>
>>>>> 
>>>>> JSON-LD content should be placed in a script element with the @type
>> =
>>>>> attribute set to application/ld+json. For text/html, text inside of
>> the =
>>>>> script tags does not need to be escaped (issue: use CDATA for
>> XHTML?). =
>>>>> 
>>>>> http://dev.w3.org/html5/html-xhtml-author-guide/#script-and-style
>> No, XHTML for the web can non contain script tags that contain any form
>> of < or & or ]]> or --. JSON does not provide for anyway to escape
>> those that I'm aware of, therefor you basically can't use JSON-LD
>> inside an XHTML document intended for the web.
>>>>> 
>>>>> ... everything else sounds great! Well... except...
>>>>> 
>>>>> The character encoding of the embedded JSON-LD fragment will match
>> the =
>>>>> HTML documents encoding.
>>>>> 
>>>>> If a processor extracts the JSON-LD content into RDF, it should
>> expand =
>>>>> the JSON-LD fragment into an RDF dataset using the algorithm
>> defined in =
>>>>> [JSON-LD-Processing] section 10.6 "Convert to RDF Algorithm". If
>> the =
>>>>> HTML file contains multiple JSON-LD script tags, or other RDF
>> statements =
>>>>> are extracted, the result is the RDF merge of the datasets.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Other processors implementing this mechanism may choose to expand
>> the =
>>>>> JSON-LD and return the expanded JSON-LD output.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Section 6.9.1 Specifying Remote Context
>>>>> 
>>>>> In addition to the mechanism defined in section 6.9, if the =
>>>>> @data-context attribute is present on the script element, its value
>> is =
>>>>> 
>>>>> @data-* SHOULD/MUST? not be used for this.
>>>>> 
>>>>> "These attributes are not intended for use by software that is
>> independent of the site that uses the attributes."
>>>> 
>>>> Having been part of the initial discussions on this, I have found
>> exactly the same problem. However... at this point I am not sure what
>> the alternatives are. We can do three things:
>>>> 
>>>> - introducing our own attribute, eg, @context; but that is a big no-
>> no with the HTML WG, and it would take a loooong time to convince them
>> of the necessity of one (consider the raws that surrounded @longdesc,
>> @role, or the RDFa attributes). These examples worked out but for
>> standard only, whereas this proposal is for an informal feature, much
>> like Turtle in HTML. Bottom line: that has no chance of getting
>> through, meaning that resulting HTML files would be invalid.
>>>> - re-using an RDFa attribute, namely @vocab. But that means that
>> validation of such a file would require validating an HTML file with an
>> RDFa flag (eg, when validator.nu is used) which is strange because this
>> feature has nothing to do with RDFa. And, apart from validation, it is
>> conceptually wrong to reuse an attribute that has nothing to do with
>> RDFa but which would introduced _for_ RDFa. So this may not be an
>> option after all
>>>> - using the data-* mechanism which, well, has the drawback you
>> mention.
>>>> 
>>>> We have not found any other approach:-( Anybody has a bright idea?
>>>> 
>>>> Ivan
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>> Gavin
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> provided to the JSON-LD processor in a manner equivalent to the =
>>>>> treatment of the HTTP Link Header with the =
>>>>> http://www.w3.org/ns/json-ld#context link relation as specified in
>> =
>>>>> section 6.8, except that the inline specified JSON-LD need not have
>> have =
>>>>> embedded context information. For example:
>>>>> 
>>>>> <script type=3D"application/ld+json" data-
>> context=3D"http://schema.org/">
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> ----
>>>> Ivan Herman, W3C Semantic Web Activity Lead
>>>> Home: http://www.w3.org/People/Ivan/
>>>> mobile: +31-641044153
>>>> FOAF: http://www.ivan-herman.net/foaf.rdf
>> 
>> 
>> ----
>> Ivan Herman, W3C Semantic Web Activity Lead
>> Home: http://www.w3.org/People/Ivan/
>> mobile: +31-641044153
>> FOAF: http://www.ivan-herman.net/foaf.rdf
> 
> 
>

Received on Sunday, 17 March 2013 15:46:37 UTC