web-calculus

www-form Surface Syntax

2003-01-24

This specification defines the mapping of the web-calculus document model onto the application/x-www-form-urlencoded surface syntax. This mapping provides interoperation between web-calculus tools and existing WWW browsers.

Abstract

The [ name => value ] listing defined by the application/x-www-form-urlencoded syntax is treated as a [ node_path => string ] listing for specifying the contents of a web-calculus document.

Overview

Design goals

Using a FORM to fill in a document

An HTML FORM describes a web-calculus document. The content of the document is specified via individual form controls. The value of a form control is the value of a corresponding Schema or Annotation in the document. The location of the text string within the document is specified by the form control's control name.

Description

Grammar

The grammar for the application/x-www-form-urlencoded mapping is:

document ::= (Control ('&' Control)*)?

Control ::= ControlName '=' ControlValue

ControlName ::= (PathSegment ('-' ControlName)?) | ControlType?

PathSegment ::= Name ('.' Index)?

Index ::= [0-9]+

ControlType ::= 'node.schema' | 'node.text' | 'branch.text'

ControlValue ::= uric*

A document is a list of zero or more Controls, separated by '&'.

Each Control determines the value of a corresponding Schema or Annotation within the document. If a Schema or Annotation is left unspecified, it defaults to the empty string.

The ControlName specifies the path from the root of the document to the location of the identified text string within the document. The path delimiter character is '-'.

A PathSegment specifies the Name of the next Branch in the path from the root of the document to the location of the identified text string within the document. The first PathSegment is always the synthetic 'doc' branch, used to index the list of nodes in a web-calculus document.

If a Branch Name appears more than once within a Node, the PathSegment MUST additionally specify which one of the named Branches is next in the path. Multiple Branches with the same Name are distinguished by their order within the Node. The optional Index gives the relative position of the next Branch in the path.

If unspecified, the Index defaults to '0'.

A Control encodes either: a Schema; a Node Annotation; or a Branch Annotation. Each of these different types of Control is distinguished by a corresponding ControlType. The corresponding ControlType values are 'node.schema', 'node.text', or 'branch.text'.

If a Control's ControlType is left unspecified, it defaults to 'node.text'.

A ControlValue contains a URL encoded Schema or Annotation.

Example

Below is a simple example of an application/x-www-form-urlencoded representation of a web-calculus document. The example has been split onto multiple lines for easier reading, but would be transmitted as a single line.

doc-node.schema=http%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fproject%2FNodeSchema&

doc-branch_name-branch.text=First+branch+comment&

doc-branch_name=child+node+data&

doc=Root+node+comment

The document has a single root Node. The root Node Schema is: 'http://example.com/project/NodeSchema'. The root Node Annotation is: 'Root node comment'. The root Node has a single Branch named 'branch_name', with Annotation: 'First branch comment'. The single Branch points to a child Node with Annotation: 'child node data'. The child Node has an implicit Schema and no Branches.

Copyright 2003 Waterken Inc. All rights reserved.