Index: source =================================================================== --- source (revision 4581) +++ source (working copy) @@ -4362,14 +4362,6 @@ title="selector-visited">:visited pseudo-classes might have been affected.

-

If the hyperlink has a ping attribute and its absolute URL(s) are being shown to the - user, then the ping - attribute's tokens should be re-resolved relative to the element and the UI updated - appropriately.

-
If the element is a q, blockquote, @@ -16620,7 +16612,6 @@
Global attributes
href
target
-
ping
rel
media
hreflang
@@ -16630,7 +16621,6 @@
interface HTMLAnchorElement : HTMLElement {
   stringifier attribute DOMString href;
            attribute DOMString target;
-           attribute DOMString ping;
            attribute DOMString rel;
   readonly attribute DOMTokenList relList;
            attribute DOMString media;
@@ -16666,7 +16656,6 @@
   otherwise have been placed, if it had been relevant.

The target, ping, rel, media, hreflang, and -

The href, target and ping attributes affect what +

The href and target attributes affect what happens when users follow hyperlinks created using the a element. The rel, The IDL attributes href, ping, target, rel, media, shape

href
target
-
ping
rel
media
hreflang
@@ -29860,7 +29846,6 @@ attribute DOMString shape; stringifier attribute DOMString href; attribute DOMString target; - attribute DOMString ping; attribute DOMString rel; readonly attribute DOMTokenList relList; attribute DOMString media; @@ -30004,9 +29989,8 @@

When user agents allow users to follow hyperlinks created using the area element, as described in the next section, the - href, - target and ping attributes decide how the + href and + target attributes decide how the link is followed. The rel, media, hreflang, and

The target, ping, rel, media, hreflang, and coords, href, target, ping, rel, media, hreflang, and that will be used. User agents use this name when following hyperlinks.

-

The ping attribute, if - present, gives the URLs of the resources that are interested in - being notified if the user follows the hyperlink. The value must be - a set of space-separated tokens, each of which must be a - valid URL. The - value is used by the user agent for hyperlink - auditing.

-

For a and area elements that represent hyperlinks, the relationship between the document containing the hyperlink and the destination resource indicated by the hyperlink is @@ -64800,147 +64773,6 @@ source browsing context.

-
Hyperlink auditing
- -

If an a or area hyperlink element has a - ping attribute, and the - user follows the hyperlink, and the hyperlink's URL can - be resolved, relative to the - hyperlink element, without failure, then the user agent must take - the ping attribute's value, - split that string on - spaces, resolve each - resulting token relative to the hyperlink element, and then should - send a request (as described below) to each of the resulting absolute URLs. (Tokens that fail to - resolve are ignored.) This may be done in parallel with the primary - request, and is independent of the result of that request.

- -

User agents should allow the user to adjust this behavior, for - example in conjunction with a setting that disables the sending of - HTTP Referer (sic) headers. Based - on the user's preferences, UAs may either ignore the - ping attribute altogether, - or selectively ignore URLs in the list (e.g. ignoring any - third-party URLs).

- -

For URLs that are HTTP URLs, the requests must be performed by - fetching the specified URLs using the - POST method, with an entity body with the MIME type - text/ping consisting of the four-character string - "PING", from the origin of the - Document containing the hyperlink. All relevant cookie and HTTP - authentication headers must be included in the request. Which other - headers are required depends on the URLs involved.

- -
- -
If both the address - of the Document object containing the hyperlink being - audited and the ping URL have the same origin
- -
The request must include a Ping-From HTTP header with, as its - value, the address of - the document containing the hyperlink, and a Ping-To HTTP header with, as its value, - the address of the absolute URL of the target of the - hyperlink. The request must not include a Referer (sic) HTTP header.
- -
Otherwise, if the origins are different, but the document - containing the hyperlink being audited was not retrieved over an - encrypted connection
- -
The request must include a Referer (sic) HTTP header [sic] with, - as its value, the current address of the document containing the - hyperlink, a Ping-From HTTP - header with the same value, and a Ping-To HTTP header with, as its value, - the address of the target of the hyperlink.
- -
Otherwise, the origins are different and the document - containing the hyperlink being audited was retrieved over an - encrypted connection
- -
The request must include a Ping-To HTTP header with, as its value, - the address of the target of the hyperlink. The request must - neither include a Referer (sic) - HTTP header nor include a Ping-From HTTP header.
- -
- -

To save bandwidth, implementors might also wish to - consider omitting optional headers such as Accept from - these requests.

- -

User agents must, unless otherwise specified by the user, honor - the HTTP headers (including, in particular, redirects and HTTP - cookie headers), but must ignore any entity bodies returned in the - responses. User agents may close the connection prematurely once - they start receiving an entity body. [COOKIES]

- -

For URLs that are not HTTP URLs, the requests must be performed - by fetching the specified URL normally, - and discarding the results.

- -

When the ping attribute is - present, user agents should clearly indicate to the user that - following the hyperlink will also cause secondary requests to be - sent in the background, possibly including listing the actual target - URLs.

- -

For example, a visual user agent could include - the hostnames of the target ping URLs along with the hyperlink's - actual URL in a status bar or tooltip.

- - - -
- -

The ping attribute is redundant - with pre-existing technologies like HTTP redirects and JavaScript - in allowing Web pages to track which off-site links are most - popular or allowing advertisers to track click-through rates.

- -

However, the ping attribute - provides these advantages to the user over those alternatives:

- -
    - -
  • It allows the user to see the final target URL - unobscured.
  • - -
  • It allows the UA to inform the user about the out-of-band - notifications.
  • - -
  • It allows the user to disable the notifications without losing - the underlying link functionality.
  • - -
  • It allows the UA to optimize the use of available network - bandwidth so that the target page loads faster.
  • - -
- -

Thus, while it is possible to track users without this feature, - authors are encouraged to use the ping attribute so that the user - agent can make the user experience more transparent.

- -
- - - - -

Link types

The following table summarizes the link types that are defined by @@ -91124,11 +90956,6 @@ forms before triggering their navigation.

-

User agents are expected to inform the user of whether a - hyperlink includes hyperlink auditing, and - to let them know at a minimum which domains will be contacted as - part of such auditing.

-

User agents are expected to allow users to navigate browsing contexts to the resources indicated by the text/cache-manifest resources.

-

text/ping

- -

This registration is for community review and will be submitted - to the IESG for review, approval, and registration with IANA.

- - - -
-
Type name:
-
text
-
Subtype name:
-
ping
-
Required parameters:
-
No parameters
-
Optional parameters:
-
No parameters
-
Encoding considerations:
-
Not applicable.
-
Security considerations:
-
-

If used exclusively in the fashion described in the context of - hyperlink auditing, this type introduces no new - security concerns.

-
-
Interoperability considerations:
-
- Rules applicable to this type are defined in this specification. -
-
Published specification:
-
- This document is the relevant specification. -
-
Applications that use this media type:
-
- Web browsers. -
-
Additional information:
-
-
-
Magic number(s):
-
text/ping resources always consist of the four - bytes 0x50 0x49 0x4E 0x47 (ASCII 'PING').
-
File extension(s):
-
No specific file extension is recommended for this type.
-
Macintosh file type code(s):
-
No specific Macintosh file type codes are recommended for this type.
-
-
-
Person & email address to contact for further information:
-
Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>
-
Intended usage:
-
Common
-
Restrictions on usage:
-
Only intended for use with HTTP POST requests generated as part - of a Web browser's processing of the ping attribute.
-
Author:
-
Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>
-
Change controller:
-
W3C and WHATWG
-
- -

Fragment identifiers have no meaning with - text/ping resources.

- @@ -93511,55 +93270,7 @@ -

Ping-From

-

This section describes a header field for registration in the - Permanent Message Header Field Registry. [RFC3864]

- -
-
Header field name
-
Ping-From
-
Applicable protocol
-
http
-
Status
-
standard
-
Author/Change controller
-
W3C and WHATWG
-
Specification document(s)
-
- This document is the relevant specification. -
-
Related information
-
None.
-
- - -

Ping-To

- -

This section describes a header field for registration in the - Permanent Message Header Field Registry. [RFC3864]

- -
-
Header field name
-
Ping-To
-
Applicable protocol
-
http
-
Status
-
standard
-
Author/Change controller
-
W3C and WHATWG
-
Specification document(s)
-
- This document is the relevant specification. -
-
Related information
-
None.
-
- - -

Index

@@ -93596,7 +93307,6 @@ globals; href; target; - ping; rel; media; hreflang; @@ -93639,7 +93349,6 @@ shape; href; target; - ping; rel; media; hreflang; @@ -95436,12 +95145,6 @@ Pattern to be matched by the form control's value Regular expression matching the JavaScript Pattern production - ping - a; - area - URLs to ping - Set of space-separated tokens consisting of valid URLs - placeholder input; textarea