Re: Document Indexing -- How to index Dynamic Content?

On Wed, 6 Nov 1996, Ian Graham wrote:

> This means an HTML-based mechanism for indicating the status of 
> blocks of the document. In the following I describe two possible 
> mechanisms for doing this.  One requires no changes to HTML -- 
> just an agreed upon semantic for an attribute value. The second 
> requires a simple change to HTML, with the benefit of providing 
> somewhat greater information content.  In both cases, I assume 
> that the default behavior of an indexing tool is to index the 
> document content, provided the document is delivered with an 
> 'appropriate' HTTP last-modified: response header field.

I suggested earlier the idea of using <OBJECT> to allow 'client-side' 
includes. This allows for much of what you ask, as the main document 
itself does not change at all (if it is stable) whereas the actual 
includes and/or CGI scripts that produce html 'fragments' are still 
retrieved by the standard mechanism.

For it to work, there needs to be a few things done.

1> The introduction of this sort of handling at a browser level. By using 
<OBJECT> you can include things like 'links' to fully created dynamic 
pages 'if' the browser cannot support it, within the <OBJECT> tags, as 
<OBJECT> simply ignores them.

2> Possibly the creation of a new MIME type for such fragments 
(text/html-fragment) so that it's understood exactly 'what' you are 
retrieving (how else will <OBJECT> know if it's a fragment or a full HTML 
file it's retrieving, and how will the browser know how to treat it.

3> People need to use the damn thing!

Then with something like this... 

<OBJECT SRC='http://www.something.com/test.frag' MIME='text/html-fragment'>
<A HREF='http://www.something.com/test.frag.html>This page is a test</A>
</OBJECT>

You get full object support, without dropping your users in an endless pit.

PS: This is just me making a point, I know that the way I've shown object 
above is totally 'wrong'. It's only intended to show 'how' it's intended 
to work.

PPS: The file 'test.frag.html' is simply a header and footer with a server 
side include in the middle pointing to 'test.frag'. Simple to manage once 
it's set up, which you'd prolly agree is very simple to do. You could 
even get a CGI script to figure out what is being requested, and do the 
header, footer and include all itself.

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Received on Friday, 8 November 1996 04:23:28 UTC