View source for rest/microformat-pub-protocol

=[ Background Problem ]=
Microformat gives meaning to small chunks of text in one XHTML document.

We can put several pieces of microformatted contents (e.g hCalendar,
hAtom, hCard etc) in a single XHTML document, and both human and
machine will be likely possible to understand and process each of the
pieces.

Is it possible, if we (human) wish to hand-author just one of the
pieces (e.g to update/delete the entry represented by that piece of
hAtom), and submit it back to the remote server?

=[ APP model draf-06 ]=
I will highlight two resources: "Collection" and "Member", quoted from
[http://tools.ietf.org/wg/atompub/draft-ietf-atompub-protocol/draft-ietf-atompub-protocol-06.txt APP section 3]:
;"Collection": A resource that contains a set of member IRIs.
;"Member": A resource whose IRI is listed in a collection.

In brief,
* "Collection" has a "href" IRI to accept POST to create a *new* member. See 8.1
* "Collection" has a "list-template" IRI to accept GET to *list* out members in the collection. See 9.0
* "Member" has a link *edit* IRI to accept GET, PUT, DELETE to manipulate the member. See 10.1

APP is designed for machine. Both "what" and "how" are written in draft and have to be early-bound into both client and server codes.


=[ a microformat way? ]=
Use "member" and "collection" classes based on the semantic in APP.
The "resource" is usually in microformat. Example: hEvent is a "member" and hCalendar is a "collection". 
Of course, a "member" may exists in a document without its "collection".

Use &lt;a> hyperlinks tell human "what" to do:
* click "edit" link to manipulate that particular "member"
* click "new" link to create a new member in the "collection"
* click "list" link to list the members in the "collection"
----------
<pre>
&lt;nn class="member">
        &lt;a href="[uri]"  rel="edit">Edit&lt;/a>
&lt;/nn>

&lt;nn class="collection">
        &lt;a href="[uri]" rel="new">New&lt;/a>
        &lt;a href="[uri]" rel="list">List&lt;/a>
&lt;/nn>
</pre>
---------

Use &lt;form> (X)HTML Form to tell human "how" to do:
* after clicking "edit" link, user receive the member, plus a form to
* update/delete it.
* after clicking "new" link, user receive a form to create new member.
* after clicking "list" link, user receive a collection of members, plus
* a form to query them.
---------
Example after click "edit" link of hEvent, users may receive a XHTML:
<pre>
&lt;div class="vevent member">
&lt;a href="[uri]"  rel="edit">Edit&lt;/a>
&lt;abbr class="dtstart" title="20051212"> December 12, 2005 &lt;/abbr> -
&lt;span class="summary"> Birthday Party &lt;/span> - at
&lt;span class="location"> Home &lt;/span>
&lt;/div>

&lt;form action="[uri]" method="post" id="vevent-form">
&lt;textarea id="code" name="code">
&lt;div class="vevent">&lt;abbr class="dtstart" title.......... &lt;/div>
&lt;/textarea>
&lt;button type="submit" id="update" name="update">Update&lt;/button>
&lt;button type="submit" id="delete" name="delete">Delete&lt;/button>
&lt;/form>
</pre>
* simple and easy for human (just read, click, type ;-)
* able to create, edit or list microcontents. (standard HTTP, XHTML)
* late-binding (e.g human will discover "what" and "how" to do by following links)
* hand authoring (use &lt;form>. Question: human prefers plain &lt;textarea> or h*-o-matic?)
* and still machine parsable (all are still microformat, and standard XHTML)


=[ Brainstorming.. ]=
== Just &lt;textarea> ?==
The &lt;textarea> is just a basic idea. More fields and h*-o-matic (with
script) can be added as an alternate to help users to author a
microcontent.

== Where should be use? ==
Many blogs/forums provide "edit", "new post" links near displayed
entries after the owner is authenticated. A blog user should be able
to update blogroll (at the side bar),  categories and entries on the
same page easily by just clicking links.

== So easy? It's just the same old normal way we build web pages! ==
That's the point, isn't it? ;-) However, I'm not sure about how
machine/custom application will parse and understand XHTML &lt;form>
element.
A [http://www.markbaker.ca/2003/05/RDF-Forms/ RDF Form] is out there as a machine-friendly similar version of  HTML Form.