Re: efficient retrieval of annotation bodies in Annotea

This optimisation assumes that the server has the bodies itself. This isn't
(in a number of the cases I have played with) a valid assumption. So while I
have no problem with allowing a query that includes "please give me all the
annotation metadata and bodies that you have for FOO", I think requiring it
would seriously restrict the usefulness of the protocol.

A simple example is to think of descriptions of images, where a user might
make an annotation to provide an explicit linkage that can be automatically
retrieved. This is a common accessibility use case (making an alternative
representation available for a person who cannot clearly see or interpret the
picture) where one might often expect to find the body of the annotation is
an existing resource on the web, referred to rather than held by the annotea
server.

Cheers

Chaals

On Fri, 19 Mar 2004, Mark Smith wrote:

>
>[Please accept my apologies if this has already been discussed; I did
>not find it in the list archives.]
>
>I have been looking at the Annotea protocol, and it seems that one HTTP
>GET request must be issued to retrieve each annotation body.  If a
>client wants to retrieve the list of annotations for a page as well as
>all of the associated bodies, it can't do so very efficiently.  Or did I
>miss something in the spec?
>
>Are people open to extending the protocol to allow this kind of query?
>If so, I'd be happy to experiment a bit and propose something concrete.
>
>Reference: http://www.w3.org/2002/12/AnnoteaProtocol-20021219
>
>--
>Mark Smith
>LDAP Book Information: http://www.ldapbook.com/
>What's Next:           http://www.pearlcrescent.com/
>
>

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Received on Monday, 22 March 2004 01:52:48 UTC