HTML5
A vocabulary and associated APIs for HTML and XHTML
W3C Recommendation 28 October
Links
Links are a conceptual construct, created by , , and elements, that represent a connection between two resources, one of which is the current . There are two kinds of links in HTML:
These are links to resources that are to be used to augment the current document, generally automatically processed by the user agent.
These are links to other resources that are generally exposed to the user by the user agent so that the user can cause the user agent to navigate to those resources, e.g. to visit them in a browser or download them.
For elements with an attribute and a attribute, links must be created for the keywords of the attribute, as defined for those keywords in the link types section.
Similarly, for and elements with an attribute and a attribute, links must be created for the keywords of the attribute as defined for those keywords in the link types section. Unlike elements, however, and element with an attribute that either do not have a attribute, or whose attribute has no keywords that are defined as specifying hyperlinks, must also create a hyperlink. This implied hyperlink has no special meaning (it has no link type) beyond linking the element's document to the resource given by the element's attribute.
A hyperlink can have one or more that modify the processing semantics of that hyperlink.
Links created by and elements
The attribute on and elements must have a value that is a valid URL potentially surrounded by spaces.
The attribute on and elements is not required; when those elements do not have attributes they do not create hyperlinks.
The attribute, if present, must be a valid browsing context name or keyword. It gives the name of the browsing context that will be used. User agents use this name when following hyperlinks.
When an or element's activation behavior is invoked, the user agent may allow the user to indicate a preference regarding whether the hyperlink is to be used for navigation or whether the resource it specifies is to be downloaded.
In the absence of a user preference, the default should be navigation if the element has no attribute, and should be to download the specified resource if it does.
Whether determined by the user's preferences or via the presence or absence of the attribute, if the decision is to use the hyperlink for navigation then the user agent must follow the hyperlink, and if the decision is to use the hyperlink to download a resource, the user agent must download the hyperlink. These terms are defined in subsequent sections below.
The attribute, if present, indicates that the author intends the hyperlink to be used for downloading a resource. The attribute may have a value; the value, if any, specifies the default file name that the author recommends for use in labeling the resource in a local file system. There are no restrictions on allowed values, but authors are cautioned that most file systems have limitations with regard to what punctuation is supported in file names, and user agents are likely to adjust file names accordingly.
The attribute on and elements controls what kinds of links the elements create. The attribute's value must be a set of space-separated tokens. The allowed keywords and their meanings are defined below.
The attribute has no default value. If the attribute is omitted or if none of the values in the attribute are recognized by the user agent, then the document has no particular relationship with the destination resource other than there being a hyperlink between the two.
The attribute on and elements that create hyperlinks, if present, gives the language of the linked resource. It is purely advisory. The value must be a valid BCP 47 language tag. [BCP47]User agents must not consider this attribute authoritative — upon fetching the resource, user agents must use only language information associated with the resource to determine its language, not metadata included in the link to the resource.
The attribute, if present, gives the MIME type of the linked resource. It is purely advisory. The value must be a valid MIME type. User agents must not consider the attribute authoritative — upon fetching the resource, user agents must not use metadata included in the link to the resource to determine its type.
Following hyperlinks
When a user created by an element , the user agent must run the following steps:
Let be false.
Let be the browsing context that contains the object with which in question is associated.
If the user indicated a specific browsing context when following the hyperlink, or if the user agent is configured to follow hyperlinks by navigating a particular browsing context, then let be that browsing context.
Otherwise, if is an or element that has a attribute, then let be the browsing context that is chosen by applying the rules for choosing a browsing context given a browsing context name, using the value of the attribute as the browsing context name. If these rules result in the creation of a new browsing context, set to true.
Otherwise, if is an or element with no attribute, but the contains a element with a attribute, then let be the browsing context that is chosen by applying the rules for choosing a browsing context given a browsing context name, using the value of the attribute of the first such element as the browsing context name. If these rules result in the creation of a new browsing context, set to true.
Otherwise, let be the browsing context that itself is in.
Resolve the URL given by the attribute of that element, relative to that element.
If that is successful, let be the resulting absolute URL.
Otherwise, if resolving the URL failed, the user agent may report the error to the user in a user-agent-specific manner, may queue a task to navigate the browsing context to an error page to report the error, or may ignore the error and do nothing. In any case, the user agent must then abort these steps.
In the case of server-side image maps, append the to .
Queue a task to navigate the browsing context to . If is true, the navigation must be performed with replacement enabled. The source browsing context must be .
The task source for the tasks mentioned above is the DOM manipulation task source.
Downloading resources
In some cases, resources are intended for later use rather than immediate viewing. To indicate that a resource is intended to be downloaded for use later, rather than immediately used, the attribute can be specified on the or element that creates the hyperlink to that resource.
The attribute can furthermore be given a value, to specify the file name that user agents are to use when storing the resource in a file system. This value can be overridden by the HTTP header's filename parameters. [RFC]
In cross-origin situations, the attribute has to be combined with the HTTP header, specifically with the disposition type, to avoid the user being warned of possibly nefarious activity. (This is to protect users from being made to download sensitive personal or confidential information without their full understanding.)
When a user created by an element, the user agent must run the following steps:
Resolve the URL given by the attribute of that element, relative to that element.
If resolving the URL fails, the user agent may report the error to the user in a user-agent-specific manner, may navigate to an error page to report the error, or may ignore the error and do nothing. In either case, the user agent must abort these steps.
Otherwise, let be the resulting absolute URL.
In the case of server-side image maps, append the to .
Return to whatever algorithm invoked these steps and continue these steps asynchronously.
Fetch and handle the resulting resource as a download.
When a user agent is to handle a resource obtained from a fetch algorithm , it should provide the user with a way to save the resource for later use, if a resource is successfully obtained; or otherwise should report any problems downloading the file to the user.
If the user agent needs a file name for a resource being handled as a download, it should select one using the following algorithm.
This algorithm is intended to mitigate security dangers involved in downloading files from untrusted sites, and user agents are strongly urged to follow it.
Let be the void value.
If the resource has a header, that header specifies the disposition type, and the header includes file name information, then let have the value specified by the header, and jump to the step labeled sanitize below. [RFC]
Let be the origin of the in which the download or navigate action resulting in the download was initiated, if any.
Let be the origin of the URL of the resource being downloaded, unless that URL's scheme component is , in which case let be the same as the , if any.
If there is no , then let be true. Otherwise, let be true if is the same origin as , and false otherwise.
If is true and the resource has a header and that header includes file name information, then let have the value specified by the header, and jump to the step labeled sanitize below. [RFC]
If the download was not initiated from a hyperlink created by an or element, or if the element of the hyperlink from which it was initiated did not have a attribute when the download was initiated, or if there was such an attribute but its value when the download was initiated was the empty string, then jump to the step labeled no proposed file name.
Let have the value of the attribute of the element of the hyperlink that initiated the download at the time the download was initiated.
If is true, let have the value of , and jump to the step labeled sanitize below.
If the resource has a header and that header specifies the disposition type, let have the value of , and jump to the step labeled sanitize below. [RFC]
No proposed file name: If is true, or if the user indicated a preference for having the resource in question downloaded, let have a value derived from the URL of the resource in a user-agent-defined manner, and jump to the step labeled sanitize below.
Act in a user-agent-defined manner to safeguard the user from a potentially hostile cross-origin download. If the download is not to be aborted, then let be set to the user's preferred file name or to a file name selected by the user agent, and jump to the step labeled sanitize below.
If the algorithm reaches this step, then a download was begun from a different origin than the resource being downloaded, and the origin did not mark the file as suitable for downloading, and the download was not initiated by the user. This could be because a attribute was used to trigger the download, or because the resource in question is not of a type that the user agent supports.
This could be dangerous, because, for instance, a hostile server could be trying to get a user to unknowingly download private information and then re-upload it to the hostile server, by tricking the user into thinking the data is from the hostile server.
Thus, it is in the user's interests that the user be somehow notified that the resource in question comes from quite a different source, and to prevent confusion, any suggested file name from the potentially hostile should be ignored.
Sanitize: Optionally, allow the user to influence . For example, a user agent could prompt the user for a file name, potentially providing the value of as determined above as a default value.
Adjust to be suitable for the local file system.
For example, this could involve removing characters that are not legal in file names, or trimming leading and trailing whitespace.
If the platform conventions do not in any way use extensions to determine the types of file on the file system, then return as the file name and abort these steps.
Let be the type given by the resource's Content-Type metadata, if any is known. Let be the type given by 's extension, if any is known. For the purposes of this step, a type is a mapping of a MIME type to an extension.
If is consistent with the user's preferences (e.g. because the value of was determined by prompting the user), then return as the file name and abort these steps.
If and are the same type (i.e. the type given by the resource's Content-Type metadata is consistent with the type given by 's extension), then return as the file name and abort these steps.
If the is known, then alter to add an extension corresponding to .
Otherwise, if is known to be potentially dangerous (e.g. it will be treated by the platform conventions as a native executable, shell script, HTML application, or executable-macro-capable document) then optionally alter to add a known-safe extension (e.g. "").
This last step would make it impossible to download executables, which might not be desirable. As always, implementors are forced to balance security and usability in this matter.
Return as the file name.
For the purposes of this algorithm, a file consists of any part of the file name that platform conventions dictate will be used for identifying the type of the file. For example, many operating systems use the part of the file name following the last dot ("") in the file name to determine the type of the file, and from that the manner in which the file is to be opened or executed.
User agents should ignore any directory or path information provided by the resource itself, its URL, and any attribute, in deciding where to store the resulting file in the user's file system.
Link types
The following table summarizes the link types that are defined by this specification. This table is non-normative; the actual definitions for the link types are given in the next few sections.
In this section, the term referenced document refers to the resource identified by the element representing the link, and the term current document refers to the resource within which the element representing the link finds itself.
To determine which link types apply to a , , or element, the element's attribute must be split on spaces. The resulting tokens are the link types that apply to that element.
Except where otherwise specified, a keyword must not be specified more than once per attribute.
Link types are always ASCII case-insensitive, and must be compared as such.
Thus, is the same as .
Some of the types described below list synonyms for these values. These are to be handled as specified by user agents, but must not be used in documents.
Link type ""
The keyword may be used with , , and elements.
The meaning of this keyword depends on the values of the other attributes.
- If the element is a element and the attribute also contains the keyword
The keyword modifies the meaning of the keyword in the way described for that keyword. The keyword does not create a link of its own.
- If the keyword is used with the attribute set to the value or the value
The keyword creates a hyperlink referencing a syndication feed (though not necessarily syndicating exactly the same content as the current page).
The first , , or element in the document (in tree order) with the keyword used with the attribute set to the value or the value must be treated as the default syndication feed for the purposes of feed autodiscovery.
The following element gives the syndication feed for the current page:
<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" href="www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar">The following extract offers various different syndication feeds:
<p>You can access the planets database using Atom feeds:</p> <ul> <li><a href="www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar" rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml">Recently Visited Planets</a></li> <li><a href="www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar" rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml">Known Bad Planets</a></li> <li><a href="www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar" rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml">Unexplored Planets</a></li> </ul>- Otherwise
The keyword creates a hyperlink referencing an alternate representation of the current document.
The nature of the referenced document is given by the , and attributes.
If the keyword is used with the attribute, and that attribute's value differs from the root element's language, it indicates that the referenced document is a translation.
If the keyword is used with the attribute, it indicates that the referenced document is a reformulation of the current document in the specified format.
The and attributes can be combined when specified with the keyword.
For example, the following link is a French translation that uses the PDF format:
<link rel=alternate type=application/pdf hreflang=fr href=manual-fr>This relationship is transitive — that is, if a document links to two other documents with the link type "", then, in addition to implying that those documents are alternative representations of the first document, it is also implying that those two documents are alternative representations of each other.
Link type ""
The keyword may be used with , , and elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.
For and elements, the keyword indicates that the referenced document provides further information about the author of the nearest element ancestor of the element defining the hyperlink, if there is one, or of the page as a whole, otherwise.
For elements, the keyword indicates that the referenced document provides further information about the author for the page as a whole.
The "referenced document" can be, and often is, a URL giving the e-mail address of the author. [MAILTO]
Synonyms: For historical reasons, user agents must also treat , , and elements that have a attribute with the value "" as having the keyword specified as a link relationship.
Link type ""
The keyword may be used with and elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.
The keyword gives a permalink for the nearest ancestor element of the linking element in question, or of the section the linking element is most closely associated with, if there are no ancestor elements.
The following snippet has three permalinks. A user agent could determine which permalink applies to which part of the spec by looking at where the permalinks are given.
<body> <h1>Example of permalinks</h1> <div id="a"> <h2>First example</h2> <p><a href="www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar" rel="bookmark">This permalink applies to only the content from the first H2 to the second H2</a>. The DIV isn't exactly that section, but it roughly corresponds to it.</p> </div> <h2>Second example</h2> <article id="b"> <p><a href="www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar" rel="bookmark">This permalink applies to the outer ARTICLE element</a> (which could be, e.g., a blog post).</p> <article id="c"> <p><a href="www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar" rel="bookmark">This permalink applies to the inner ARTICLE element</a> (which could be, e.g., a blog comment).</p> </article> </article> </body>Link type ""
The keyword may be used with , , and elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.
For and elements, the keyword indicates that the referenced document provides further help information for the parent of the element defining the hyperlink, and its children.
In the following example, the form control has associated context-sensitive help. The user agent could use this information, for example, displaying the referenced document if the user presses the "Help" or "F1" key.
<p><label> Topic: <input name=topic> <a href="help/www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar" rel="help">(Help)</a></label></p>For elements, the keyword indicates that the referenced document provides help for the page as a whole.
For and elements, on some browsers, the keyword causes the link to use a different cursor.
Link type ""
The keyword may be used with elements. This keyword creates an external resource link.
The specified resource is an icon representing the page or site, and should be used by the user agent when representing the page in the user interface.
Icons could be auditory icons, visual icons, or other kinds of icons. If multiple icons are provided, the user agent must select the most appropriate icon according to the , , and attributes. If there are multiple equally appropriate icons, user agents must use the last one declared in tree order at the time that the user agent collected the list of icons. If the user agent tries to use an icon but that icon is determined, upon closer examination, to in fact be inappropriate (e.g. because it uses an unsupported format), then the user agent must try the next-most-appropriate icon as determined by the attributes.
User agents are not required to update icons when the list of icons changes, but are encouraged to do so.
There is no default type for resources given by the keyword. However, for the purposes of determining the type of the resource, user agents must expect the resource to be an image.
The attribute gives the sizes of icons for visual media. Its value, if present, is merely advisory. User agents may use the value to decide which icon(s) to use if multiple icons are available.
If specified, the attribute must have a value that is an unordered set of unique space-separated tokens which are ASCII case-insensitive. Each value must be either an ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "", or a value that consists of two valid non-negative integers that do not have a leading "0" (U+) character and that are separated by a single U+ LATIN SMALL LETTER X or U+ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER X character.
The keywords represent icon sizes in raw pixels (as opposed to CSS pixels).
An icon that is 50 CSS pixels wide intended for displays with a device pixel density of two device pixels per CSS pixel (2x, dpi) would have a width of raw pixels. This feature does not support indicating that a different resource is to be used for small high-resolution icons vs large low-resolution icons (e.g. 50×50 2x vs × 1x).
The keyword represents that the resource contains a scalable icon, e.g. as provided by an SVG image.
Other keywords must be further parsed as follows to determine what they represent:
If the keyword doesn't contain exactly one U+ LATIN SMALL LETTER X or U+ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER X character, then this keyword doesn't represent anything. Abort these steps for that keyword.
Let be the string before the "" or "".
Let be the string after the "" or "".
If either or start with a "0" (U+) character or contain any characters other than ASCII digits, then this keyword doesn't represent anything. Abort these steps for that keyword.
Apply the rules for parsing non-negative integers to to obtain .
Apply the rules for parsing non-negative integers to to obtain .
The keyword represents that the resource contains a bitmap icon with a width of device pixels and a height of device pixels.
The keywords specified on the attribute must not represent icon sizes that are not actually available in the linked resource.
In the absence of a with the keyword, for s obtained over HTTP or HTTPS, user agents may instead attempt to fetch and use an icon with the absolute URL obtained by resolving the URL "" against the document's address, as if the page had declared that icon using the keyword.
The following snippet shows the top part of an application with several icons.
<!DOCTYPE HTML> <html> <head> <title>lsForums — Inbox</title> <link rel=icon href=www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar sizes="16x16" type="image/png"> <link rel=icon href=www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar sizes="32x32 48x48" type="image/www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar"> <link rel=icon href=www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar sizes="x x x x"> <link rel=icon href=www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar sizes="57x57" type="image/png"> <link rel=icon href=www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar sizes="any" type="image/svg+xml"> <link rel=stylesheet href=www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar> <script src=www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar></script> <meta name=application-name content="lsForums"> </head> <body>For historical reasons, the keyword may be preceded by the keyword "". If the "" keyword is present, it must be come immediately before the keyword and the two keywords must be separated by only a single U+ SPACE character.
Link type ""
The keyword may be used with , , and elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.
The keyword indicates that the referenced document provides the copyright license terms under which the main content of the current document is provided.
This specification defines the main content of a document and content that is not deemed to be part of that main content via the element. The distinction should be made clear to the user.
Consider a photo sharing site. A page on that site might describe and show a photograph, and the page might be marked up as follows:
<!DOCTYPE HTML> <html> <head> <title>Exampl Pictures: Kissat</title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/style/default"> </head> <body> <h1>Kissat</h1> <nav> <a href="../">Return to photo index</a> </nav> <main> <figure> <img src="/pix/_www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar"> <figcaption>Kissat</figcaption> </figure> <p>One of them has six toes!</p> <p><small>This photograph is <a rel="license" href="www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar">MIT Licensed</a></small></p> </main> <footer> <a href="/">Home</a> | <a href="../">Photo index</a> <p><small>© copyright Exampl Pictures. All Rights Reserved.</small></p> </footer> </body> </html>In this case the applies to just the photo (the main content of the document), not the whole document. In particular not the design of the page itself, which is covered by the copyright given at the bottom of the document. This should be made clear in the text referencing the licensing link and could also be made clearer in the styling (e.g. making the license link prominently positioned near the photograph, while having the page copyright in small text at the foot of the page, or adding a border to the element.)
Synonyms: For historical reasons, user agents must also treat the keyword "" like the keyword.
Link type ""
The keyword may be used with and elements. This keyword does not create a hyperlink, but annotates any other hyperlinks created by the element (the implied hyperlink, if no other keywords create one).
The keyword indicates that the link is not endorsed by the original author or publisher of the page, or that the link to the referenced document was included primarily because of a commercial relationship between people affiliated with the two pages.
Link type ""
The keyword may be used with and elements. This keyword does not create a hyperlink, but annotates any other hyperlinks created by the element (the implied hyperlink, if no other keywords create one).
It indicates that no referrer information is to be leaked when following the link.
Link type ""
The keyword may be used with , , and elements. This keyword creates an external resource link.
The keyword indicates that preemptively fetching and caching the specified resource is likely to be beneficial, as it is highly likely that the user will require this resource.
There is no default type for resources given by the keyword.
Link type ""
The keyword may be used with , , and elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.
The keyword indicates that the referenced document provides an interface specifically for searching the document and its related resources.
OpenSearch description documents can be used with elements and the link type to enable user agents to autodiscover search interfaces. [OPENSEARCH]
Link type ""
The keyword may be used with elements. This keyword creates an external resource link that contributes to the styling processing model.
The specified resource is a resource that describes how to present the document. Exactly how the resource is to be processed depends on the actual type of the resource.
If the keyword is also specified on the element, then ; in this case, the attribute must be specified on the element, with a non-empty value.
The default type for resources given by the keyword is .
The appropriate times to obtain the resource are:
Quirk: If the document has been set to quirks mode, has the same origin as the URL of the external resource, and the Content-Type metadata of the external resource is not a supported style sheet type, the user agent must instead assume it to be .
Link type ""
The keyword may be used with and elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.
The keyword indicates that the tag that the referenced document represents applies to the current document.
Since it indicates that the tag applies to the current document, it would be inappropriate to use this keyword in the markup of a tag cloud, which lists the popular tags across a set of pages.
This document is about some gems, and so it is tagged with "" to unambiguously categorise it as applying to the "jewel" kind of gems, and not to, say, the towns in the US, the Ruby package format, or the Swiss locomotive class:
<!DOCTYPE HTML> <html> <head> <title>My Precious</title> </head> <body> <header><h1>My precious</h1> <p>Summer </p></header> <p>Recently I managed to dispose of a red gem that had been bothering me. I now have a much nicer blue sapphire.</p> <p>The red gem had been found in a bauxite stone while I was digging out the office level, but nobody was willing to haul it away. The same red gem stayed there for literally years.</p> <footer> Tags: <a rel=tag href="www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar">Gemstone</a> </footer> </body> </html>In this document, there are two articles. The "" link, however, applies to the whole page (and would do so wherever it was placed, including if it was within the elements).
<!DOCTYPE HTML> <html> <head> <title>Gem 4/4</title> </head> <body> <article> <h1> Steinbock</h1> <p>The number Gem 4/4 electro-diesel has an ibex and was rebuilt in </p> </article> <article> <h1> Murmeltier</h1> <figure> <img src="www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar" alt="The was red with pantographs and tall vents on the side."> <figcaption>The in the s, above Lago Bianco.</figcaption> </figure> <p>The number Gem 4/4 electro-diesel has a marmot and was rebuilt in </p> </article> <p class="topic"><a rel=tag href="www.cronistalascolonias.com.ar">Gem 4/4</a></p> </body> </html>Sequential link types
Some documents form part of a sequence of documents.
A sequence of documents is one where each document can have a previous sibling and a next sibling. A document with no previous sibling is the start of its sequence, a document with no next sibling is the end of its sequence.
A document may be part of multiple sequences.
Link type ""
The keyword may be used with , , and elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.
The keyword indicates that the document is part of a sequence, and that the link is leading to the document that is the next logical document in the sequence.
Link type ""
The keyword may be used with , , and elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.
The keyword indicates that the document is part of a sequence, and that the link is leading to the document that is the previous logical document in the sequence.
Synonyms: For historical reasons, user agents must also treat the keyword "" like the keyword.
Other link types
may be registered in the microformats wiki existing-rel-values page. [MFREL]
Anyone is free to edit the microformats wiki existing-rel-values page at any time to add a type. Extension types must be specified with the following information:
- Keyword
The actual value being defined. The value should not be confusingly similar to any other defined value (e.g. differing only in case).
If the value contains a ":" (U+A) character, it must also be an absolute URL.
- Effect on
One of the following:
- Not allowed
- The keyword must not be specified on elements.
- Hyperlink
- The keyword may be specified on a element; it creates a hyperlink.
- External Resource
- The keyword may be specified on a element; it creates an external resource link.
- Effect on and
One of the following:
- Not allowed
- The keyword must not be specified on and elements.
- Hyperlink
- The keyword may be specified on and elements; it creates a hyperlink.
- External Resource
- The keyword may be specified on and elements; it creates an external resource link.
- Hyperlink Annotation
- The keyword may be specified on and elements; it annotates other hyperlinks created by the element.
- Brief description
A short non-normative description of what the keyword's meaning is.
- Specification
A link to a more detailed description of the keyword's semantics and requirements. It could be another page on the Wiki, or a link to an external page.
- Synonyms
A list of other keyword values that have exactly the same processing requirements. Authors should not use the values defined to be synonyms, they are only intended to allow user agents to support legacy content. Anyone may remove synonyms that are not used in practice; only names that need to be processed as synonyms for compatibility with legacy content are to be registered in this way.
- Status
One of the following:
- Proposed
- The keyword has not received wide peer review and approval. Someone has proposed it and is, or soon will be, using it.
- Ratified
- The keyword has received wide peer review and approval. It has a specification that unambiguously defines how to handle pages that use the keyword, including when they use it in incorrect ways.
- Discontinued
- The keyword has received wide peer review and it has been found wanting. Existing pages are using this keyword, but new pages should avoid it. The "brief description" and "specification" entries will give details of what authors should use instead, if anything.
If a keyword is found to be redundant with existing values, it should be removed and listed as a synonym for the existing value.
If a keyword is registered in the "proposed" state for a period of a month or more without being used or specified, then it may be removed from the registry.
If a keyword is added with the "proposed" status and found to be redundant with existing values, it should be removed and listed as a synonym for the existing value. If a keyword is added with the "proposed" status and found to be harmful, then it should be changed to "discontinued" status.
Anyone can change the status at any time, but should only do so in accordance with the definitions above.
Conformance checkers may use the information given on the microformats wiki existing-rel-values page to establish if a value is allowed or not: values defined in this specification or marked as "proposed" or "ratified" must be accepted when used on the elements for which they apply as described in the "Effect on" field, whereas values marked as "discontinued" or values not containing a U+A COLON character but not listed in either this specification or on the aforementioned page must be reported as invalid. The remaining values must be accepted as valid if they are absolute URLs containing US-ASCII characters only and rejected otherwise. Conformance checkers may cache this information (e.g. for performance reasons or to avoid the use of unreliable network connectivity).
Note: Even URL-valued link types are compared ASCII-case-insensitively. Validators might choose to warn about characters U+ (LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A) through U+A (LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z) (inclusive) in the pre-case-folded form of link types that contain a colon.
When an author uses a new type not defined by either this specification or the Wiki page, conformance checkers should offer to add the value to the Wiki, with the details described above, with the "proposed" status.
Types defined as extensions in the microformats wiki existing-rel-values page with the status "proposed" or "ratified" may be used with the attribute on , , and elements in accordance to the "Effect on" field. [MFREL]
Download target file from link html - situation familiar
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