Now, in my previous post, I'd mentioned that I might have some ideas to "put up" in response to this recent OPML and web directories kerfluffle. Here's my general idea:
How about trying XOXO, the rel attribute on HTML links, and the subsection link type—all with a bit of XSL to make it work?
Here's some working data and code:
- Here's the end result, a simple web directory.
Here are some clues as to what the above does:
- This directory started with this top-level outline. View source on this page, notice the "Syndication Feeds" link with the
rel="subsection". - Applying this XSL using this web service is where the work gets done. This consists of dereferencing each link with a
rel="subsection"and transcluding the innards of the page at the end of the URL. - Notice that the URL of "Syndication Feeds" comes from a domain other than
decafbad.com. If I wanted to, the third level of transclusion could've come from yet another domain, too.
I think this solution is better than using OPML for web directories. Although it could use some refinement—using a bit of <iframe> or AJAX magic to include in a page, perhaps—it's not only already supported by more applications than OPML, it also leverages a lot of prior art and consensus work.
So, am I wrong here? If so, please tell me how, where, and why.
6 Comments
You're not wrong. This is very awesome.
Bravo! I believe you've got the optimal approach to outline-style hierarchies on the Web.
Gopher NG here we come!
http://dannyayers.com/archives/2005/07/14/gopher-ng/
Danny: Well, hey, if we're going to reinvent Gopher, we may as well do it right.
Next, I set my sights on Archie--watch out, Google!
You're wrong because Dave Winer will say you're wrong for not using his format (dispite it being rather loosely specified).
But yeah, I thought that XHTML was modular and that you could use sections of it as needed, and that
<UL>and<OL>are good enough for outlines. Seems pretty obvious to me.Ooh, Archie...yeah...
Hmm, excellent idea to use rel="subsection" - that make so much sense. I have a few Ajax based outliners lying around handling things from ul/li lists, atom feeds and opml outlines. I should pull it all together and prototype what you've suggested above. (I think I also have an OPML-friendly PHP proxy to "alleviate" the cross-domain security measure - should be able to hack it to accept XOXO-like outlines)
Step two would be some WikiSyntax additions to author the above on a wiki (for instance defining transclusion links).
3 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
[...] So, yeah, I had some spare time at lunch and I started expanding my little XOXO linked outlines thing into a more fully-fledged Gopher NG with OPML support. But, I’m not sure if I’ll really do much more with it. It started on a lark, really. But after awhile, I realized that I don’t have any use for it other than as an interesting exercise. Moving along… [...]
[...] So… What to do? Bah, I don’t know. But, against my better judgement, I feel like I have an idea or two to “put up”. [...]
[...] While we’re on the subject, crazy but true: WOW OPML Browser does what it says. Basically here’s a tool that does a limited subset of what a regular Web browser can do, with a format that does a limited subset of what HTML can do. Ok, I’ll grant you it’s pretty, but with a tweak or two couldn’t Les’ Web Directories thing be just as pretty? To get the full Gopher NG effect you’d probably want to strip the transcluded HTML page down to just the links. I guess you could add Web 2.0 points by hitting the Ajax hard, or even making it a FireFox plugin. [...]
Post a Comment