Re: ATOM representation of search result facets

On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 11:10:23PM -0600, Eric J. Bowman wrote:
> "Rushforth, Peter" wrote:
> >
> > As long as you don't use the application/atom+xml media type to
> > describe it, you should be OK.
> > 
> 
> You're not wrong, but I think there's a better way to look at it -- by
> staying true to the generic media type, rather than forking it to be a
> custom media type for one point of data.  This can be done by extending
> Atom (which doesn't change the media type, i.e. it's still application/
> atom+xml), or perhaps just using an ugly hack like this:
> 
> <link rel="related" title="Canon" type="application/atom+xml"
> href="/search?q=35mm&fq=Manufacturer%3DCanon...">length=134</link>

Given that Atom is XML and it and its extensions relies mostly on namespaces, I would consider using a custom attribute better way. Something like this:

    <atom xmlns:foo="...">

    <link rel="related" title="Canon" type="application/atom+xml"
          foo:length="134"/>


> This just introduces some domain-specific vocabulary in the link text,
> without tripping up any generic Atom processors.  To me this is far
> preferable to excluding generic Atom processors from the communication
> by introducing a new media type such processors won't recognize as
> something they can handle (not without sniffing, anyway).

I definitely agree with this. Atom is made to be extensible.

-- 
Trygve