Re: [APPS-REVIEW] Metalink XML Download Description Format (draft-bryan-

["Anthony Bryan" <anthonybryan@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 5:17 AM, Julian Reschke <julian.reschke@gmx.de> wrote:
> Anthony Bryan wrote:
>>
>> On Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 5:35 AM, Julian Reschke <julian.reschke@gmx.de>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Dave Cridland wrote:
>>>>
>>>> ...
>>>> 11) Section 4.2.17: Does that "type" attribute totally suck? Of course,
>>>> you have to have it because every man, his dog, and his pet hampster has
>>>> decided that only HTTP is allowed, these days, for absolutely
>>>> everything,
>>>> leading to a totally useless URI scheme which essentially fails to
>>>> describe
>>>> the actual resource it's supposedly a locator for. Okay, rant over, back
>>>> to
>>>> the review.
>>>> ...
>>>
>>> "4.2.17. The "metalink:url" Element
>>>
>>>
>>>  The "metalink:url" element contains the IRI of a file.  All IRIs
>>>  should lead to identical files, except in the case of type
>>>  "bittorrent" where the IRI should lead to a .torrent file."
>>>
>>> Actually, don't do that. Don't make the meaning of an element totally
>>> dependent on an attribute on it. If torrent files are a special case (can
>>> there be more...?), then define a separate element.
>>
>> I'm sure there COULD be more, but I don't know of any other right now.
>>
>> Do you suggest a torrent specific element, or something generic?
>
> If it could be phrased as something more generic, and then state the current
> use case for torrent files, that probably would be best.
>
> So, in general, this would be for IRIs that do not identify a resource to
> download, but metadata about a resource to download? Strictly speaking,
> isn't metalink not yet another format for that?

Yes, it is.

Do you think about a "metadata" element (a sub-element of
"resources")with a required "type" attribute of MIME type is
appropriately generic?
This could then be used to describe Metalinks if needed, and other
types that may come later.

I don't think BitTorrent's MIME type is in the is listed in the IANA
MIME Media Types. Would this be a problem?

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <metalink xmlns="http://www.metalinker.org";>
     <files>
       <file name="example.ext">
         <resources>
           <url>ftp://ftp.example.com/example.ext</url>
           <url>http://example.com/example.ext</url>
           <metadata
type="application/x-bittorrent">http://example.com/example.ext.torrent
           </metadata>
         </resources>
       </file>
     </files>
   </metalink>

-- 
(( Anthony Bryan ... Metalink [ http://www.metalinker.org ]
 )) Easier, More Reliable, Self Healing Downloads