This specification contains a framework for representing pointers - entities
that permit identifying a portion or segment of a piece of content - making use
of the Resource Description Framework (RDF). It also describes a number of
specific types of pointers that permit portions of a document to be referred to
in different ways. When referring to a specific part of, say, a piece of web
content, it is useful to be able to have a consistent manner by which to refer
to a particular segment of a web document, to have a variety of ways by which
to refer to that same segment, and to make the reference robust in the face of
changes to that document. This specification is part of the Evaluation And Report Language
(EARL) but can be reused in other contexts too.
Status of this Document
This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at https://www.w3.org/TR/.
Pointer Methods in RDF 1.0 is a supporting document for the Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) 1.0 Schema but can be used in other contexts too. It is considered to be complete and mature but at this time there are not sufficient implementations to finalize this work.
If you wish to make comments regarding this Pointer Methods in RDF 1.0 document, please send them to [email protected] (publicly visible mailing list archive).
Publication as a Working Group Note does not imply endorsement by the W3C Membership. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.
This specification introduces a vocabulary constructed using the Resource
Description Framework (RDF), to enable certain parts within a document,
particularly HTML and XML documents, to be pointed to in an accurate way. The
document introduces a series of RDF classes and properties that can be used to
point to parts of a document in different ways.
Note that some pointers may be more appropriated to operate on the character
or byte serialization of the resources and others for structured documents,
such as XML documents, where character or byte based pointing mechanisms may be
considered a bad practice.
The namespace for Pointer Methods in RDF as specified in this draft is
http://www.w3.org/2009/pointers# and uses the ptr
prefix. Other namespaces typically used by Pointer Methods in RDF include the
following:
cnt
The Representing Content in RDF namespace
http://www.w3.org/2011/content# described in [Content]
rdf
The RDF namespace
http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns# described in [RDF]
rdfs
The RDF Schema namespace
http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema# described in [RDFS]
One motivation for this vocabulary stems from methods for reporting test
results such as the Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) [EARL] but this need not be its only application. Other
typical applications could include:
Applications dealing with retrieving content and then storing that
content in an alternative format
Applications dealing with the testing and/or repairing of content
Content-authoring tools that would aid authors in finding problematic or
incomplete portions of the content being created or edited
Aggregation, comparison, or synopsis of the results of applications, such
as the aggregation, comparison, or synopsis of test results or
reparations
This list is not meant to be exhaustive. This vocabulary is extensible,
providing for alternative or enhanced methods for referring to portions of
content and for referring to a variety of content types.
Pointer Methods in RDF is defined as an RDF vocabulary. The Resource
Description Framework (RDF) is a general-purpose language for describing
information in a way that is machine-understandable. The examples will
be serialized with the abbreviated RDF/XML notation.
This document assumes the following background knowledge:
Basic knowledge about the Semantic Web and RDF. For references, consult
[RDF], [RDF-PRIMER]
and [RDFS].
Basic knowledge of XML [XML] and its associated
technologies.
Why RDF model is different from the XML model [RDF-XML-DIFFS].
2. Classes
2.1 Pointer Class
Pointer - a method that could be used to point out different parts
of electronic documents. It is an abstract class which is intended to be
subclassed into more specific ones, and every other type of pointer must be a ptr:Pointer subclass.
This abstract class can not be used directly, one of the more specific
refinements contained in this document must be
used instead.
While the generic PointersGroup class can be used directly, one
of the following more specific refinements should be used instead to provide more information
about the existing relationship between the group members:
A group of pointers that point simultaneously to the same part of the
document.
2.2.1 RelatedPointers Class
Related Pointers - a group of pointers to be grouped
together for some purpose, indicating that the group members
(presumably pointing to different parts of the document) have some relationship
because they have a meaning as a whole. This is a subclass of
the PointersGroup class
Equivalent Pointers - a group of pointers that point
simultaneously to the same part of the document, so that they
can be considered equivalent. Put another way, each pointer in
a set of pointers that are identified as equivalent must identify or pick out
the same piece of content. This is a subclass of the PointersGroup
class
In order to achieve the maximum level of flexibility and interoperability,
it is recommended to provide as much
equivalent pointers as possible for any case.
Single Pointer - a pointing method made up of a
unique pointer. This is an abstract single pointer that
provides the necessary framework, but it does not provide any kind of pointer,
so more specific subclasses must be used.
A single pointer that points out a part of a document by means of the
line number and character position where it is located.
2.3.1 ExpressionPointer Class
Expression Pointer - a single pointer that makes use of expression
languages to point out parts of a document. This is a generic expression
pointer that could be subclassed for extensibility, more specific subclasses
should be used where suitable.
This vocabulary already provides several subclasses of the
ExpressionPointer class depending on the language that is used to
define the pointer expression.
While the generic OffsetPointer class can be used directly, one
of the following more specific refinements should be used instead to provide more information
about the type of offset that is being used.
Line Char Pointer - a single pointer that points out parts of a
document by means of the line number and character position where the target is
localized.
Compound Pointer - a pointing method made up of a pair of
pointers that identify a well defined section within a document
delimited by a begin and an end.
This is an abstract compound pointer that provides the necessary framework,
but it does not constitute a complete compound pointer, as it only defines the
start point of the section. One of the more specific subclasses must be used instead.
A compound pointer that points out parts of a document by means of a
range delimited by a starting point and a character snippet from that
starting point.
A compound pointer that points out parts of a document by means of a
range delimited by a starting point and a character offset from that
starting point.
A compound pointer that points out parts of a document by means of a
range delimited by a starting point and a byte offset from that starting
point.
2.4.1 StartEndPointer Class
Start End Pointer - a compound pointer pointing out parts of a
document by means of a range delimited by a pair of single pointers that define
the start point and the end point.
Char Snippet Compound Pointer - a compound pointer pointing out
parts of a document by means of a range delimited by a single pointer that
defines the start point and a character snippet from there.
Char Offset Compound Pointer - a compound pointer pointing out
parts of a document by means of a range delimited by a single pointer that
defines the start point and a character offset from there.
Byte Snippet Compound Pointer - a compound pointer pointing out
parts of a document by means of a range delimited by a single pointer that
defines the start point and a byte snippet from there.
Byte Offset Compound Pointer - a compound pointer pointing out
parts of a document by means of a range delimited by a single pointer that
defines the start point and a byte offset from there.
A PointersGroup will have one groupPointer
property per each of the pointers it contains. As any group of pointers must have one or more pointers, instances of the
PointersGroup class must have at
least one instance of the groupPointer property.
The position of the end of a range from a startPointer,
expressed by the number of characters that conform the range, and being the
first character of the range that one indicated by the
startPointer.
A CharOffsetCompoundPointermust have exactly one charOffset.
The position of the end of a range from a startPointer,
expressed by the number of bytes that conform the range, and being the first
byte of the range that one indicated by the startPointer.
A ByteOffsetCompoundPointermust have exactly one byteOffset.
Namespaces in XML 1.1
(Second Edition) - W3C Recommendation, 16 August 2006. T. Bray, D.
Hollander, A. Layman, R. Tobin eds. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/REC-xml-names11-20060816
Extensible Markup Language (XML)
1.0 (Fourth Edition). W3C Recommendation 16 August 2006, edited in
place 29 September 2006. T. Bray, J. Paoli, C.M. Sperberg-McQueen, E.
Maler, F. Yergeau eds. http://www.w3.org/TR/xml/
XPointer
xpointer() scheme. W3C Working Draft 19 December 2002. S. DeRose, E.
Maler, R. Daniel eds. http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-xptr-xpointer-20021219/
Contributors to this Working Draft: Shadi Abou-Zahra, Sandor Herramhof,
Carlos Iglesias, Nick Kew, Johannes Koch, Jim Ley, Charles McCathieNevile,
Chris Ridpath, Christophe Strobbe, Michael Squillace and Carlos Velasco.
