Microsummaries: Specifying

[Myk Melez]

[part of the Microsummaries proposal; posted here for discussion]

Specifying Microsummaries

Firefox, its users, the web sites they visit, and independent developers
should all be able to specify microsummaries for pages.

Firefox

Firefox should be able to specify microsummaries via bundled
microsummary definitions for popular sites.

Users

Users should be able to specify microsummaries via a microsummary
builder feature in Firefox that lets users extract text snippets from a
rendered page via simple methods like drag-and-drop and string them
together along with arbitrary text into a microsummary. Implementation
of a microsummary builder is deferred to the future.

Sites

Sites should be able to specify microsummaries by embedding metadata
referencing microsummary definitions or RSS/Atom feeds into pages. For
example, a site might embed one of the following two <link> elements
into an HTML page:

<link rel="microsummary"
type="application/x.microsummary+xml"
href="/index-microsummary.xml">
<link rel="microsummary"
type="application/x.atom+xml"
href="/index-microsummary.xml">

Or it might embed one of the following two XML processing instructions
into an XML document:

<?microsummary type="application/x.microsummary+xml"
href="/index-microsummary.xml"?>
<?microsummary type="application/x.atom+xml"
href="/index-microsummary.xml"?>

For RSS/Atom feed-based microsummaries, Firefox will use profiles of the
RSS and Atom specifications to extract microsummaries via the following
rules:

* if the rss:channel/atom:feed element contains no items/entries,
the microsummary is the value of the rss:description/atom:subtitle
element;

* if the rss:channel/atom:feed element contains one item/entry,
the microsummary is the value of the item's/entry's
rss:description/atom:summary element;

* if the rss:channel/atom:feed element contains more than one
item/entry:

o if the items/entries are dated via
rss:pubDate/atom:published/atom:updated elements,
the microsummary is the value of the
rss:description/atom:summary element of the most recent
item/entry;

o if the items/entries are not dated, the microsummary is
the value of the rss:description/atom:summary element
of the first item/entry.

[If a page points to a microsummary definition whose <pages> list does
not include the page, should the microsummary service ignore the <pages>
list and apply the definition to the page anyway?]

Independent Developers

Independent developers should be able to specify microsummaries by
packaging microsummary definitions into addons that users can acquire
from a directory of such addons similar to the extensions/themes
directory at addons.mozilla.org. Microsummary definitions packaged in
this way are called "microsummary support packs."

Developers should be able to package multiple definitions into a single
pack. Packs should be automatically updatable.

[Should packs use the extensions model, i.e. packaged as XPIs and
subject to origin restrictions, or should they use the search engines
model, i.e. no origin restrictions?]

If packs use the extensions model, the XPIs might contain a
definitions.xml file, a directory of such files, or both, i.e.:

XPI
install.rdf
[definitions.xml]
[definitions/
*.xml]