Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Comments on the Web Log DTD

Author:Raphael Carter
Posted:2/13/1999; 3:04:59 PM
Topic:XML for weblogs
Msg #:2883 (In response to 2867)
Prev/Next:2881 / 2884

I'd like to be able to mark one sentence or phrase of the description as a "short description" -- something like:

Makeup found in pharaohs' tombs contains chemicals that don't occur naturally....

This would serve two purposes. First, it partly addresses Jorn's wish for descriptions of varying lengths -- and in a way that I'd actually be likely to use (I probably *wouldn't* write several separate descriptions of different lengths; one write-up per link is enough work for me). Second, if I understand XSL right, I could set up a stylesheet to use the short description as the anchortext. That way, an XML version of Honeyguide could use my current linking style without my needing to repeat the link URL within the description.

Bill, your comments on the DTD mention that Web log entries aren't always links. Some also have many links, none of which is primary. I occasionally do an entry comparing several stories on a single topic; it wouldn't make sense to specify just one of those links as the URL for the whole entry.

You also mentioned that links to sources could be inserted automatically using a glossary lookup. I'm doing that now on Honeyguide, and, yes, it's a real time-saver, especially if you also automate adding new entries to the glossary.

As for the metadata, how about providing for a hierarchy of categories, like in Honeyguide (category: biology, subcategory: animal behavior)? I assume that can be done without getting in the way of those who don't use subcategories. I think I'm the only one who *does* use them right now, but I suspect that as web logs get older and their archives become huge, a hierarchical organization will look more and more attractive.

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