[wsrp][markup] Second conference call

[Gino Filicetti <gfilicetti@bowstreet.com>]

Folks,

The time has come for our 2nd conference call.... I didn't bother scheduling
it this week because of the clash with the WSIA F2F... Here is the pertinent
info:

Date: Tuesday, April 23, 2002 
Time: 12:00 PM Eastern, 9:00 AM Pacific 
Duration: 1 Hour 

 To join this conference:  

For quick access, go to https://bowstreet.spiderphone.com/27914907
(This link will help connect both your browser and telephone to the call)

OR dial 1 (866) 633-2978 or +1 (646) 485-9300 and enter 2791 4907

-----------

Here is a list of issues that we've been grappling with over email since our
last conference call; I'd like to discuss each one, and see where that takes
us. It's a pretty long and exhaustive list and it's fully expected that we
may not be able to hit each one during this call.....

Markup
~~~~~~
- Should we standardize on XHTML? Do we want to discourage the use of old
style HTML but still accept it? Or refuse non-parsable HTML out-right?

- Acceptable tags in (X)HTML
  - should we specify a list of ALLOWED or DISALLOWED tags?
  - are there some tags that aren't exactly DISALLOWED but rather
DISCOURAGED?
  - go over the currently proposed list of disallowed tags in (X)HTML
    - base, body, frame, frameset, head, html, link, meta, style, title

- Should a portlet be aware of its surroundings?
  - does the portal have to tell the portlet what it's surrounding tag will
be?

- Do we want to tackle VoiceML and WML now?

- How do we deal with signed java applets, images and other resources that
the aggregator is going to have to proxy?

- Carsten proposed that portlets could send their markup in 3 sections,
begin page, main markup fragment and end page. This would allow a portlet to
insert markup into other places in the final page that the aggregator
presents
  - Sasha believes we should either make the possible locations that a
portlet can insert markup into extensible (ie: not hardwired to 3), or just
restrict it to one location.


Javascript
~~~~~~~~~~
- how will portlets define and use javascript methods?
- how will we encode javascript elements?
- will there be shared methods?


URL Rewriting
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Three suggestions on the table (first 2 from Carsten, third from Sasha)

1. Aggregator sends a prefix w/ request and portlet must use it to do the
URL boundary demarcation. The aggregator then parses the markup looking for
the prefix it provided.

2. All portlets use a predefined prefix which is part of the spec to
demarcate URL boundaries. The aggregator then parses the markup looking for
the well known prefix.

3. The aggregator automatically parses markup and heuristically determines
URL boundaries and does the necessary rewriting automatically.

- Is a prefix good enough to demarcate a URL? Do we need a more robust
mechanism?
  - Sasha suggests taking advantage of XML namespaces, and using regular XML
tags to demarcate a URL.


Namespace Encoding
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- the mechanism used to encode namespaces should be the same the used in URL
rewriting
- what types of things need to be encoded?
  - form and input names
  - javascript variables
- How does this impact the portlet writer and their pre-existing javascript?


Visual Styles
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- only very preliminary discussion has been done.
- lists of possible styles have been submitted by Thomas (used in WSP) and
Alan (used in WSUI): see attached file.