[uf-discuss] Addressing bits of information

[Tantek Ç elik]

Ben,

I think you provide an excellent summary.

On 5/25/06 10:00 AM, "Ben Ward" <lists at ben-ward.co.uk> wrote:

> Tantek Çelik wrote:
>> But discussions of extending URL/URI semantics for addressing bits of
>> information?  I'm not sure that actually has much bearing on parsing
>> microformats.  But like I said, perhaps I am missing something.
>> 
> 
> I don't know if my interpretation brings this on topic or just clarifies
> (or confusesŠ) but the problem as I understand it, is exemplified like so:
> 
> I have a page listing 12 events using hCalendar. None of the hevent
> nodes have an ID and therefore cannot be referenced through fragments.
> However, I want to pass one of these events to a web service (say a
> Technorati pipe to generate an ICS file for the specific event). There's
> no way to do that.
> 
> Same thing with a page containing multiple hCards.
> 
> However, I honestly think that this problem is best solved by
> emphasising the need/benefit of putting IDs on vcard/vevent nodes,
> rather than inventing/adopting something more complex. Personally, I
> wouldn't think it unreasonable to have 'microformats must have an ID' as
> part of each spec.

Or rather,

IF you as the publisher want to provide ICS/VCF proxy links for specific
event or contact,
THEN simply put an ID attribute on said specific event or contact and use it
in the proxy link(s).

There is no need to make it a "must" requirement.  But it totally makes
sense to direct people to this simple, known, understood, working solution
to the question of how do I proxy a specific microformatted chunk of data.


> I don't think we should overcomplicate the issue with talk of technology
> like XPointer or Selectors which are unimplemented in the areas needed
> to 'fix' this.

100% agreed.

There is already an easy solution that works for publishers (ID).

Inventing a more complex solution will not result in more adoption.

Thanks,

Tantek