[XML-SIG] Metadata in XBEL

David Faure david@mandrakesoft.com
Mon, 2 Apr 2001 15:18:41 +0100


On Sunday 01 April 2001 01:16, Uche Ogbuji wrote:
> > Uche Ogbuji writes:
> >  > Yes.  I actually implemented an off-line merge earlier, but I think a 
> >  > standardized merge indicator would be useful.
> > 
> >   To make this meaningful, do we need more discussion of what "merge"
> > means, or should this be left entirely to clients?  I'm inclined to
> > think we need a good description of the expected range of application
> > and motivation, and the rest can be left to specific applications.
> 
> OK.  I agree as you say later that a merge can be at top level or folder 
> level.  In either case, I'd use the following guidelines:
> 
> 1. A merge element is of the form "<merge xinclude:href='[target uri]'/>.  The 
> source is an XBEL file in which the merge element appears.  The target is the 
> XBEL file referenced by the URI in the xinclude:href attribute of the merge 
> element.
> 
> 2. the current folder of the source is the folder in which the relevant merge 
> element appears.  This can be the top-level "folder".
> 
> 3. All bookmarks at the top level of the target are added to the source as if 
> directly specified at the location of the merge element in the current folder.
> 
> 4. If any bookmark element in the current folder of the source has an 
> identical href attribute to a bookmark in the target, the bookmark in the 
> target is ignored.
> 
> 5. All folders at the top level of the target are added to the source as if 
> directly specified at the location of the merge element (whether top-level or 
> within a folder).  This addition involves a recursive copying of all the 
> bookmarks and sub-folders contained in the target folder.
> 
> 6. If any folder in the current folder of the source has an identical title 
> child element to a folder in the target, the folder in the target is merged 
> into the folder in the source according to this process as if he target folder 
> and the matching source folder were both top-level xbel elements.
> 
> 7. The expanded bookmark file is the result of applying this process to each 
> merge element in document order of the merge source.  All merge elements in a 
> merge target are first processed before incorporation into the merge source.

Wow, that's a very precise definition of a #include mechanism, with
all details fleshed out.
I'm fine with this specification, I think it's a simple one to implement, but
at the same time it gives the user what we want.

Thanks for this detailed spec.

-- 
David FAURE, david@mandrakesoft.com, faure@kde.org
http://perso.mandrakesoft.com/~david/, http://www.konqueror.org/
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