RE: [office] Office document fragment identifier

["Dennis E. Hamilton" <dennis.hamilton@acm.org>]

If by web-based you mean that a browser understands that the fragment part is dealt with on the server side, this will be difficult.  In many cases, the fragment is processed on the returned document, and it would take a MIME-type-based browser plug-in to handle this (and the entire document would be returned over the wire).  I think the usual way to have servers handle this reliably is to do it with the query part (e.g., ?page=42) and have the server deliver HTML[5] by default, not anything like ODF.  

I think there is a lot more that needs to be specified to achieve an interoperable protocol for reference to parts/places in documents using a custom URI fragment syntax.  One consideration has to do with assumption that xml:id values (as in content.xml?id1) be known to an user composing such an URL.  I suspect that it would be more desirable to always use document-level concepts (slides, sheets, headings, table names, cell addresses [not explicit in the ODF XML], bookmarks, etc.) that are commonly user visible and can even be specified by users.

It is not clear to me why this needs to be internal to the ODF specification.  

I can see it as an useful inspiration for a supplemental protocol definition on referencing parts of ODF documents in HTTP.  The handling of clip-board conventions for interoperable copy-paste would be another one.  

How xlink:href attribute values relying on such URL interpretations would be handled within an ODF document is an interesting supplemental case as well, since it is probably not HTML that one wants back.  In the Open Package Conventions used for OOXML this is handled by a separate URI scheme.  It would be nice if that weren't necessary.  

Perhaps content negotiation comes into it in the case of HTTP requests from within an ODF consumer (i.e., asking for a clip-board-like response rather than an HTML response).

 - Dennis

PS: What is the date of this proposal?  

-----Original Message-----
From: office@lists.oasis-open.org [mailto:office@lists.oasis-open.org] On Behalf Of Svante Schubert
Sent: Monday, March 04, 2013 08:30
To: office@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: [office] Office document fragment identifier

Taking the xml:id discussion as an opportunity to ask for the interest
of implementations for fragment identifiers for office documents:
https://wiki.oasis-open.org/office/Change_Proposal_for_ODF_1.2_using_URL_fragment_identifiers_for_ODF_media_types

Think of referencing to a certain presentation slide via a number

// Referring to slide 42
http://example.org/doc.odp#42

// Referring to a cell-range of (the first) spreadsheet
http://example.org/doc.ods#B4:C7

...

Loading and opening one of the above URLs would result into opening the
document with viewing the selected part (perhaps even annotating it for
the cell range example).
The advantage over xml:id, there is no need, that the creator has added
an ID at the content the user desires to point out.

The selection is in general a selection of document pieces, we call
component in the Collaboration SC.
Might be an interesting side product and especially interesting for web
based ODF applications.

Additional information:
https://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/office/200812/msg00036.html

Best Regards,
Svante




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