[uf-discuss] Tentative proposal for "What's New" listings

[Matthew Levine]

On Sep 21, 2006, at 5:30 PM, Andy Mabbett wrote:

>> The "atom:link" element defines a reference from an entry or
>> feed to a Web resource. This specification assigns no meaning to
>> the content (if any) of this element.

The XMDP profile in the hAtom draft [1] goes into more detail,  
defining the "bookmark" property (hAtom:bookmark) as:

> The concept of atom:link (without any "rel") with an atom:entry  
> from The Atom Syndication Format, constrained and modified as per  
> the hAtom microformat spec.

The Atom specification goes on to describe five types of link  
relations [2], with the proviso that:

> If the "rel" attribute is not present, the link element MUST be  
> interpreted as if the link relation type is "alternate"

The five relation types are:

1) "alternate": an "alternate version" of the entry.
2) "related": a resource related to the entry (e.g. examples and  
references).
3) "self": a link to the entry itself.
4) "enclosure": a resource that might "be large ... and require  
special handling".
5) "via": the source of information in the entry.

According to the XMDP profile, the hAtom:bookmark is atom:link  
without a "rel", meaning it MUST be interpreted as "alternate".  This  
constrains the hAtom:bookmark to point to alternate versions of the  
entry, which is essentially a permalink.

While there is some room for interpretation, it seems to me like  
there's a clear distinction between the *page* and the *announcement*  
that the page is being updated.  The page is related to the  
announcement (rel="related"), but it is not an alternate version of  
the announcement (rel="alternate"). This would not allow for the use  
of hAtom:bookmark the way you propose.

> If you were right, then hAtom would be of no use for the purpose I  
> outlines; and we'd still need a "What's New" microformat.

Your ultimate purpose is to syndicate updates to the site, yes?   
hAtom is perfect for this.  It might require you to tweak the format  
slightly. One possibility:

   <tr class="hentry">
      <th scope="row"><abbr class="updated" title="2006-09-21">21  
September</abbr></th>
      <td><span class="entry-title">Updated Bibliography</entry- 
title>: <span class="entry-content">Details and images of the two  
revised editions of <a href="biblio/worcs.htm#BirdsOfMalvern">Birds  
of the Malvern District</a> added to our bibliography</span>.</td>
   </tr>

   <tr class="hentry">
     <th scope="row"><abbr class="updated" title="2006-09-21">21  
September</abbr></th>
     <td><span class="entry-title">September 2006 Bulletin</span>:  
<span class="entry-content">Our <a href="../bulletin/ 
index.htm#b434">September 2006 Bulletin</a> is out now.</span></td>
   </tr>

- Matthew

[1] http://microformats.org/wiki/hatom#XMDP_Profile
[2] http://www.atomenabled.org/developers/syndication/atom-format- 
spec.php#rfc.section.4.2.7.2

-- 
Infocraft: handcrafted markup for savvy designers.
http://www.infocraft.com/