RE: is it possible to handle an XML/HTML elements attribute via the URI?

Hi Julian,

Thanks for the tip, I've had a look at the target-pseudo, and it seems a really useful feature.

Its not quite what i was getting at, as the second example of an embedded video, is perhaps a better example of the usefulness of my idea.

I apologise if I've mis-understood how a fragment works, i thought it was used to instruct the browser, how to behave (i.e. where to start displaying the visible page from).

I thought this idea, may have been an extension of the fragment feature, as it would be instructing the browser how to behave, but would be useful, for third-parties who want to harmlessly manipulate a page for their own benefit. e.g. changing the quality of video playback.

If the URI isn't the correct place for handling element manipulation (and won't be considered in future developments), could somebody explain in lame-mans terms, why?

Or better yet, could they recommend where i should look/ask for a feature that will allow users to easily, and safely manipulate a web-page to behave in a user tailored manner to the original developers generic design - XSLT perhaps? I'll have to read up about it (Thanks Claus).

Thanks,

Matthew Millar

> Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2010 14:27:41 +0200
> From: julian.reschke@gmx.de
> To: mattmill30@hotmail.com
> CC: austin.cheney@travelocity.com; uri@w3.org
> Subject: Re: is it possible to handle an XML/HTML elements attribute via the   URI?
> 
> On 28.10.2010 02:32, Matthew Millar wrote:
> > Hi Austin,
> >
> > Thanks for the reply.
> >
> > The example I was giving, was how to change the direction of a specific
> > paragraphs text, by specifying the paragraphs ID, aswell as the
> > attribute you want to set/edit (dir) and the value you want to assign it
> > ("ltr").
> >
> > See http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_p.asp - dir is a standard
> > paragraph attribute, and ltr is an accepted value for the dir attribute.
> >
> > Essentially, I was hoping it would be possible to change an elements
> > attributes, via the URI.
> >
> > This would be extremely useful, if you wanted to highlight a particular
> > section of a page, or want a particular element to render/behave
> > differently.
> >
> > For example, if could be used in conjunction with an embed element, for
> > setting the quality attribute:
> >
> > http://domain/video.html#embed_element[quality]="high"
> >
> > Hope that makes more sense.
> > ...
> 
> URIs + fragments are for addressing, not changing things.
> 
> If you want to highlight a part of an HTML page based on the fragment 
> identifier, this seems to be a *styling* problem.
> 
> See <http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-selectors/#target-pseudo>.
> 
> Best regards, Julian
>