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PaceOptionalAlternateLink


Abstract

In the current Atom draft, the alternate atom:link element is required. After a lot of discussion on [WWW]Atom-Syntax, most people came to the conclusion that requiring this element constrains the usefulness of Atom and that a lot of use cases can't be implemented in a straight-forward manner.

Some use cases that can't provide an alternate link [WWW]are:

Status

Open.

Proponents

Rationale

Make the alternate link in atom:entry optional instead of required, to simplify the implementation of Atom in use cases where alternate representations aren't easilly available.

Proposal

Change section 4.2.2 to:

   4.2.2 "atom:link" Element

   The "atom:link" element is a Link construct that conveys a URI
   associated with the feed.  The nature of the relationship is
   determined by the construct's rel attribute.

   atom:head elements SHOULD contain at least one atom:link element with
   a rel attribute value of "alternate" whenever the Atom feed has an
   alternative representation.

   atom:head elements MUST NOT contain more than one atom:link element
   with a rel attribute value of "alternate" that has the same type
   attribute value.

   If a feed's atom:link element with type="alternate" resolves to an
   HTML document, then that document SHOULD have a autodiscovery link
   element [Atom-autodiscovery] that reflects back to the feed.

   atom:head elements MAY contain additional atom:link elements beyond
   those described above.

Change section 5.2 to:

   5.2 "atom:link" Element

   The "atom:link" element is a Link construct that conveys a URI
   associated with the entry.  The nature of the relationship as well as
   the link itself is determined by the element's content.

   atom:entry elements SHOULD contain at least one atom:link element with
   a rel attribute value of "alternate" whenever the entry has an
   alternative representation.

   atom:entry elements MUST NOT contain more than one atom:link element
   with a rel attribute value of "alternate" that has the same type
   attribute value.

   atom:entry elements MAY contain additional atom:link elements beyond
   those described above.

Impacts

None

Notes

See also: PaceContentOrLink

Question: are there any use cases where both the content and the link are not available? Does it make sense to have a feed where a summary is present but no indication as to what the entry is a summary of? - SamRuby

[AsbjornUlsberg] Maybe one of atom:summary, atom:content or atom:link should be required, and atom:title always required? I just want an Atom feed to be able to stand by itself without any external references.


CategoryProposals