[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: linking, 80/20
"Jelks Cabaniss" <jelks@j...> wrote: |> Can you think of anything *simpler* than the <MAP> construct |> for what it does? | | No -- for image maps, it's great. I guess I'm having trouble | extrapolating this "aggregation" to other things. Could you give a | (non-image map) example? Some simple examples, minimal and possibly half-baked, but modeled on <MAP>, and using SGML notation from the WebSGML TC: <!ELEMENT linkitem (#PCDATA) -- prompt, title, legend, etc. -- > <!NOTATION Uri PUBLIC "-//IETF/RFC 2396//NOTATION Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax//EN" > <!ATTLIST linkitem id ID #IMPLIED url DATA Uri #REQUIRED -- no %Uri; voodoo -- > <!ELEMENT linklist (linkitem)+ > <!ATTLIST linklist id ID #REQUIRED > <!ELEMENT linkset (#PCDATA) > <!ATTLIST linkset id ID #REQUIRED items IDREFS #REQUIRED > <!ATTLIST #ALL uselink IDREF #IMPLIED -- points to a linklist or linkset, *or* a linkitem! -- > Each <linkitem> is sort of like an <a> or <img>, with just the locative information. The <linklist> and <linkset> elements are two different ways to aggregate <linkitem>s, either directly as subelements, or indirectly through a set of IDREF "pointers" (which would disengage the locations in the document of the aggregator and its effective components.) That's the bare structure, but it has some obvious applications: 1. The favorite of the click-n-drool crowd: mouse rollovers, currently an opportunity for javascript code-kiddies to flex their programming muscles. You want to aggregate images as a rollover group. So point to each image with a <linkitem>, construct the logical aggregate that relates them, and associate the aggregate with an element that can carry the rollover semantic. 2. The favorite of screen-stuffers: "drop-down" link menus, currently faked with <form>s. This is just an aggregation of <a> elements in essential structure. Have a <linkitem> for each URL, group them together, and "activate" the multiway link by pointing to the aggregator. The key feature is the uselink attribute (just like the usemap attribute). You can use it to point to an aggregate, or to an individual locator: the application just has to be smart enough to inspect the target element type. For HTML specifically, there are the usual considerations of "fallback" and KTWSFN. AIUI, <img> is being deprecated, but while it exists, it could exhibit the uselink attribute to point to a rollover "map". The dropdown link menu is somewhat harder, but if you can arrange to spread the <linkitems> over the page unobtrusively, you can swoop them all up into a dropdown using the <linkset> device. Actually, this is all basic Xlink stuff, and AFs would work swimmingly well here, such as interepreting an <img> element as an inplace <linklist> agrgregator, or treating <a>s in various places as <linkitem>s drawen together into a <linkset> somewhere. None of the essential ideas here are "new", btw ;-)
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