Closing ACTION-2132

Hi, SVG-

I closed ACTION-2132, "Propose text for UA indication in case a link is
in scope", by adding a section to the <a> element definition, Indicating
Links [1].

[[
Indicating links

Typically, HTML user agents, by convention, style the content of anchor
elements to indicate that they are links, for example by underlining and
changing the color of text and creating a colored border around images
and other replacement content. Because SVG is a visual language with
irregular shapes and complex link structure (e.g. allowing links within
other links), and is intended to allow more precise control over the
appearance of the content, SVG user agents should not provide default
styling to child content of an 'a' element, instead allowing authors to
control the linking conventions.

However, in order to ensure that links are obvious to users and to
provide detailed information about each link, SVG user agents should
provide a clear indicator when a link is in scope. A link shall be
considered to be in scope if one of the child elements of that 'a'
element has a pointer device cursor hovered over it or when that element
is the currently focused element. The user agent should change the scope
indicator to signal that a link is in scope (e.g. the cursor may be
changed to a pointing hand, or the focus highlight may be color-coded to
indicate the status of the link), should indicate the URI of the link
(by displaying it in a status bar, or reading it aloud, for example),
and should display any author-supplied information about the link (as
with a tooltip). Authors should use the 'xlink:title' attribute
appropriately on links, in order to provide information about the link
to users.
]]

I also reworded part of the SVG Fragment Identifiers [2] section,
changing this slightly controversial text:

[[
When a source document performs a link into an SVG document (for
example, via an HTML [HTML4] anchor element (i.e., <a href=...> element
in HTML) or an XLink specification [XLink]), then the SVG fragment
identifier shall specify the initial view into the SVG document, as follows:
]]

To this prose that doesn't imply normative requirements on another
language (and which is slightly less convoluted (I hope)):

[[
When a user agent  traverses a link to an SVG document fragment, whether
from within the same document or from an external source document, then
the SVG fragment identifier shall specify the initial view into the SVG
document. This applies whether the link is from an SVG 'a'  element, an
HTML anchor element [HTML4] (i.e., an <a href=...> element in HTML), or
any specification using XLink [XLink]. The user agent shall take the
following steps in determining the effect of the link traversal:
]]

[1] http://dev.w3.org/SVG/profiles/1.2T/master/linking.html#IndicatingLinks
[2]
http://dev.w3.org/SVG/profiles/1.2T/master/linking.html#SVGFragmentIdentifiers


Regards-
-Doug Schepers
W3C Team Contact, WebApps, SVG, and CDF

Received on Tuesday, 9 September 2008 22:09:08 UTC