Comments of the site-meta draft

The TAG asked me to review the site-meta draft:=20
http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-nottingham-site-meta-00
Comments below.

These are my personal comments and have not been reviewed by the TAG.=20
So, it is possible that some TAG members may disagree with them and/or=20
have additional comments.

Minor Comments

1. I think you realize that the use of site-meta as a suffix to the URI=20
steals a portion of the address space available for URIs and may be in=20
conflict with existing URIs that use =91site-meta=92 at the end. I presum=
e=20
you have come to terms with this as a necessary evil.

2. It takes 2 requests to access a piece of metadata. This, too, I=20
presume you have come to terms with.

3. The text says that =93Each "meta" element =85 MUST have a "rel" attrib=
ute containing a link relation.=94 =20
However, the third meta child in the example does not have a =91rel=92 at=
tribute.  Is this a typo?

<meta type=3D"text/example">

  foo =3D bar

  baz =3D bat

  </meta>

 4. In the above example, I presume =93foo =3D bar   baz =3D bat=94 is th=
e content of the metadata. =20
Is this meant to be free text or XML?  A few words of explanation and/or =
a realistic example would be helpful.=20

 More Serious Comments

 5. The <metadata> element contains <meta> children that contain informat=
ion about individual pieces of=20
metadata.  But metadata about what?  Is this metadata for the site as a w=
hole or for some URI contained=20
on the site?  Specifically, what is the subject of the =93rel=94 attribut=
e?

 6. Since we are suggesting two mechanisms for accessing metadata: Link H=
eader and site-meta, it seems to me=20
that we need to say something about the relationship between these mechan=
isms.  Do we need both? =20
What are the usecases?  Can a website support both mechanisms?  I see no =
reason why it should not. =20
If  site-meta is about the site as a whole, how can I get metadata about =
individual URIs on the site? =20
Do I use the link header mechanism for this? =20

=20

7. If a website supports both the Link Header and the site-meta mechanism=
s, then the data obtained from=20
using these two mechanisms must be consistent.  As it stands, the structu=
re of the <meta> element and a=20
Link Header entry are a bit different.  Should these be aligned?

 --=20

All the best, Ashok