> This is an issue I have considered. The *goal* of XFML is very clearly
> *not* to become the encompass-all format of exchanging metadata. We
> already have RDF and XTM for that. Adding namespace support to XFML
> means complicating implementation (for a lot of people namespaces are
> difficult and scary, even if it's just the difficulty of getting their
> heads around it), and moves it away from its focus. I believe the value
> of XFML lies in its focus: it knows what it wants to be and what not
> (XFML Core at least, I'm not sure what XFML2.0 is gonna be, or if it
> will even come into being).
Right, the ability to expose what might be a really big map of topics is a lot
different than exposing the content itself. For example, a site with an RSS-1.0
feed can deliver around 15 items of data in the course of a feed 'interval'.
These items can contain a whole range of metadata and content. It's considered
polite to keep the content and metadata to a lightweight set of text. There are
namespaced modules allowing the addition of all sorts of extra data and
metadata. So someone wanting to 'keep up' with the fresh content being emitted
from the site would be well-served to use RSS to do it.
If they wanted to get an 'overall picture' they'd benefit from using something
like XFML. With XFML it's possible to deliver a pretty large file that
contained the topic framework and associations of the items. This would,
essentially, be ALL items from the site. Although, one could consider using a
dynamic XFML generator that constrained the data to within certain ranges (like
by year) but that's a side-issue. Rather than have the XFML contain content it
just contains the topics, titles and URL of the actual items themselves. This
way if someone wants to find out what items exist in within a topic they don't
have to crawl the site looking for it. They can pull the XFML and THEN decide
which items to read. The page URI could point to an HTML page or, I suppose, it
could point to an XML serialization of the data. This might be a problem in
that both URI might be needed. Hmmm. But regardless, the XFML is just the
framework, the zoomed out view, of the data.
Continuing my site map development, I've run into several problems with the <page> element. Working from the premise that each leaf node (page) in a topic map...
... No, not at all. The page about french cooking can have url http://mysite.com/cgi-bin/response.cgi?topic=frenchCooking. I don't see the problem. ... Indeed....
... Clearly, Brian, you're in a position where you benefit from the XFML model but you need to use your own definition of resource objects. There's no conflict...
... I guess that's where I'm on uncertain ground. Being new to XFML and topic maps, I'm not really understanding yet how they fit into the greater scheme of...
... topic maps, I'm not really understanding yet how they fit into the greater scheme of what I would call the 'topic map system'. ... I'm mapping, yet if...
By the way, I have been looking at the market for taxonomy software lately - it is huge and taking off. It is in the middle of a consolidation fight - no...
... Which seems to imply that I will need two different topic maps of my site, one for internal use and another for external use, or at the very least an XSLT...
Hi Brian, I know what you're saying. The advantage of exporting something in a common format, even if it doesn't contain *all* the information available...
I think what Peter has been trying to say is that XFML is great for *sharing* topicmap-like sets of data. It's not intended to be the end-all-be-all exchange ...
... Yes :) Thanks Bill, you say it better than me. Get a peek :) ... This is an issue I have considered. The *goal* of XFML is very clearly *not* to become the...
This is my xfml authoring tool project (it was called xfmlmanager but then I realised that was too focussed on xfml itself). Any feedback or comments is...
... Right, the ability to expose what might be a really big map of topics is a lot different than exposing the content itself. For example, a site with an...
... I think I'm beginning to see how XFML should work, and it's given me an insight into how I could map the level of detail I want, with no changes or ...
Hi Brian, I am not sure I understand what you are trying to do with this. If you feel you're on to something go for it though. Maybe some questions so I will...
... I want to use topic maps as explicit instructions for controlling a webbot, and I can see now that this is probably where our misunderstanding was arising....
... Excellent, this is the sort of 'evolution of an idea' that helps a LOT of projects. ... Sure. and it you use apache's rewriting features and content...
... Exactly what I'm needing, yes. ... That's an excellent idea. I could use Apache's content negotiation to choose the correct XSLT template, and then...
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