Links created by a and area elements
The href attribute on a and
area elements must have a value that is a valid URL potentially surrounded by
spaces.
The href attribute on a and
area elements is not required; when those elements do not have href attributes they do not create hyperlinks.
The target 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 a or area element's activation behaviour 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
download 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 download 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 rel attribute on a and
area 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 rel attribute has no default value. If the
attribute is omitted or if none of the values in the attribute are recognised 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 hreflang attribute on
a and area 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 type 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 type attribute authoritative — upon fetching the
resource, user agents must not use metadata included in the link to the resource to determine its
type.
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
download attribute can be specified on the
a or area 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 Content-Disposition HTTP header's filename parameters. [[!RFC6266]]
In cross-origin situations, the download attribute
has to be combined with the Content-Disposition HTTP
header, specifically with the attachment 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 downloads a hyperlink created by an
element, the user agent must run the following steps:
Resolve the URL given by the href 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 URL be the resulting absolute
URL.
In the case of server-side image maps, append the hyperlink
suffix to URL.
Return to whatever algorithm invoked these steps and continue
these steps in parallel.
Fetch URL and handle the resulting resource
as a download.
When a user agent is to handle a resource obtained from a fetch algorithm as
a download, 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 filename be the void value.
If the resource has a Content-Disposition
header, that header specifies the attachment disposition type, and the
header includes file name information, then let filename have the value
specified by the header, and jump to the step labeled sanitize below. [[!RFC6266]]
Let interface origin be the origin of the
Document in which the download or
navigate action resulting in the download was initiated, if any.
Let resource origin be the origin of the URL of the
resource being downloaded, unless that URL's scheme
component is data, in which case let resource origin be
the same as the interface origin, if any.
If there is no interface origin, then let trusted
operation be true. Otherwise, let trusted operation be true if resource origin is the same origin as interface
origin, and false otherwise.
If trusted operation is true and the resource has a Content-Disposition header and that header includes file
name information, then let filename have the value specified by the header,
and jump to the step labeled sanitize below. [[!RFC6266]]
If the download was not initiated from a hyperlink created by an
a or area element, or if the element of the hyperlink from
which it was initiated did not have a download
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 proposed filename have the value of the download attribute of the element of the
hyperlink that initiated the download at the time the download was
initiated.
If trusted operation is true, let filename have
the value of proposed filename, and jump to the step labeled sanitize
below.
If the resource has a Content-Disposition
header and that header specifies the attachment disposition type, let filename have the value of proposed filename, and jump to the
step labeled sanitize below. [[!RFC6266]]
No proposed file name: If trusted operation is true, or if the
user indicated a preference for having the resource in question downloaded, let filename 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 filename 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 download 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 interface origin should be ignored.
Sanitize: Optionally, allow the user to influence filename. For
example, a user agent could prompt the user for a file name, potentially providing the value of
filename as determined above as a default value.
-
Adjust filename 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 filename as the file name and abort these steps.
Let claimed type be the type given by the resource's Content-Type metadata, if any is known. Let named
type be the type given by filename'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 named type is consistent with the user's preferences (e.g. because
the value of filename was determined by prompting the user), then return filename as the file name and abort these steps.
If claimed type and named type are the same type
(i.e. the type given by the resource's Content-Type metadata is
consistent with the type given by filename's extension), then return filename as the file
name and abort these steps.
-
If the claimed type is known, then alter filename to
add an extension corresponding to claimed
type.
Otherwise, if named type 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 filename to add a known-safe extension
(e.g. ".txt").
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 filename as the file name.
For the purposes of this algorithm, a file extension
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 download 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 link, a, or
area element, the element's rel 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 rel attribute.
Link types are always ASCII case-insensitive, and must be
compared as such.
Thus, rel="next" is the same as rel="NEXT".
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 "alternate"
The alternate keyword may be used with link,
a, and area elements.
The meaning of this keyword depends on the values of the other attributes.
- If the element is a
link element and the rel
attribute also contains the keyword stylesheet -
The alternate keyword modifies the meaning of the stylesheet keyword in the way described for that keyword. The
alternate keyword does not create a link of its own.
- If the
alternate keyword is used with the type attribute set to the value application/rss+xml or the value application/atom+xml -
The keyword creates a hyperlink referencing a syndication feed (though not
necessarily syndicating exactly the same content as the current page).
The first link, a, or area element in the document (in
tree order) with the alternate keyword used with the type attribute set to the value application/rss+xml or the value application/atom+xml must
be treated as the default syndication feed for the purposes of feed autodiscovery.
The following link element gives the syndication
feed for the current page:
<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" href="data.xml">
The following extract offers various different syndication
feeds:
<p>You can access the planets database using Atom feeds:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="recently-visited-planets.xml" rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml">Recently Visited Planets</a></li>
<li><a href="known-bad-planets.xml" rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml">Known Bad Planets</a></li>
<li><a href="unexplored-planets.xml" 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 hreflang, and type attributes.
If the alternate keyword is used with the hreflang attribute, and that attribute's value differs
from the root element's language, it indicates that the referenced
document is a translation.
If the alternate keyword is used with the type attribute, it indicates that the referenced document is
a reformulation of the current document in the specified format.
The hreflang and type attributes can be combined when specified with the alternate 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 "alternate", 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 "author"
The author keyword may be used with link,
a, and area elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.
For a and area elements, the author
keyword indicates that the referenced document provides further information about the author of
the nearest article element ancestor of the element defining the hyperlink, if there
is one, or of the page as a whole, otherwise.
For link elements, the author 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 mailto: URL giving the e-mail address of the author. [[MAILTO]]
Synonyms: For historical reasons, user agents must also treat
link, a, and area elements that have a rev attribute with the value "made" as having the author keyword specified as a link relationship.
Link type "bookmark"
The bookmark keyword may be used with a and
area elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.
The bookmark keyword gives a permalink for the nearest
ancestor article element of the linking element in question, or of the section the linking element is most closely associated with, if
there are no ancestor article 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="a.html" 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="b.html" 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="c.html" 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 "help"
The help keyword may be used with link,
a, and area elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.
For a and area elements, the help
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/topic.html" rel="help">(Help)</a></label></p>
For link elements, the help keyword indicates that
the referenced document provides help for the page as a whole.
For a and area elements, on some browsers, the help keyword causes the link to use a different cursor.
Link type "icon"
The icon keyword may be used with link 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
type, media, and sizes 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 icon keyword.
However, for the purposes of determining the type of the
resource, user agents must expect the resource to be an image.
The sizes 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 "any", or a value that consists of two valid non-negative integers that do not have a leading U+0030 DIGIT
ZERO (0) character and that are separated by a single U+0078 LATIN SMALL LETTER X or U+0058 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, 192dpi) would have a width of 100 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 100×100 1x).
To parse and process the attribute's value, the user agent must first split the attribute's value on spaces, and must then parse each resulting
keyword to determine what it represents.
The any 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+0078 LATIN SMALL LETTER X or U+0058 LATIN
CAPITAL LETTER X character, then this keyword doesn't represent anything. Abort these steps for
that keyword.
Let width string be the string before the "x" or
"X".
Let height string be the string after the "x" or
"X".
If either width string or height string start with
a U+0030 DIGIT ZERO (0) 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 width
string to obtain width.
Apply the rules for parsing non-negative integers to height
string to obtain height.
The keyword represents that the resource contains a bitmap icon with a width of width device pixels and a height of height device
pixels.
The keywords specified on the sizes attribute must not
represent icon sizes that are not actually available in the linked resource.
In the absence of a link with the icon keyword, for
Documents 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 "/favicon.ico" against the document's
address, as if the page had declared that icon using the icon
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=favicon.png sizes="16x16" type="image/png">
<link rel=icon href=windows.ico sizes="32x32 48x48" type="image/vnd.microsoft.icon">
<link rel=icon href=mac.icns sizes="128x128 512x512 8192x8192 32768x32768">
<link rel=icon href=iphone.png sizes="57x57" type="image/png">
<link rel=icon href=gnome.svg sizes="any" type="image/svg+xml">
<link rel=stylesheet href=lsforums.css>
<script src=lsforums.js></script>
<meta name=application-name content="lsForums">
</head>
<body>
...
For historical reasons, the icon keyword may be preceded by the
keyword "shortcut". If the "shortcut" keyword is
present, the rel attribute's entire value must be an
ASCII case-insensitive match for the string "shortcut icon" (with a single U+0020 SPACE character between the tokens and
no other space characters).
Link type "license"
The license keyword may be used with link,
a, and area elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.
The license 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 main 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 lang="en">
<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/39627052_fd8dcd98b5.jpg">
<figcaption>Kissat</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of them has six toes!</p>
<p><small>This photograph is <a rel="license" href="http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php">MIT Licensed</a></small></p>
</main>
<footer>
<a href="/">Home</a> | <a href="../">Photo index</a>
<p><small>© copyright 2009 Exampl Pictures. All Rights Reserved.</small></p>
</footer>
</body>
</html>
In this case the license
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 main element.)
Synonyms: For historical reasons, user agents must also treat the keyword
"copyright" like the license keyword.
Link type "nofollow"
The nofollow keyword may be used with a and
area 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 nofollow 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 "noreferrer"
The noreferrer keyword may be used with a and
area 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.
If a user agent follows a link defined by an a or area element that
has the noreferrer keyword, the user agent must not include a
Referer (sic) HTTP header ( for other protocols) in the
request.
This keyword also causes the opener
attribute to remain null if the hyperlink creates a new browsing context.
Link type "prefetch"
The prefetch keyword may be used with link,
a, and area elements. This keyword creates an external resource link.
The prefetch 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 prefetch
keyword.
Link type "search"
The search keyword may be used with link,
a, and area elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.
The search 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 link elements and
the search link type to enable user agents to autodiscover search
interfaces. [[!OPENSEARCH]]
Link type "tag"
The tag keyword may be used with a and
area elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.
The tag 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 "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemstone" 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 2012</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="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemstone">Gemstone</a>
</footer>
</body>
</html>
In this document, there are two articles. The "tag"
link, however, applies to the whole page (and would do so wherever it was placed, including if it
was within the article elements).
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Gem 4/4</title>
</head>
<body>
<article>
<h1>801: Steinbock</h1>
<p>The number 801 Gem 4/4 electro-diesel has an ibex and was rebuilt in 2002.</p>
</article>
<article>
<h1>802: Murmeltier</h1>
<figure>
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Trains_de_la_Bernina_en_hiver_2.jpg"
alt="The 802 was red with pantographs and tall vents on the side.">
<figcaption>The 802 in the 1980s, above Lago Bianco.</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The number 802 Gem 4/4 electro-diesel has a marmot and was rebuilt in 2003.</p>
</article>
<p class="topic"><a rel=tag href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhaetian_Railway_Gem_4/4">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 "next"
The next keyword may be used with link,
a, and area elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.
The next 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 "prev"
The prev keyword may be used with link,
a, and area elements. This keyword creates a hyperlink.
The prev 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
"previous" like the prev keyword.
Other link types
Extensions to the predefined set of 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+003A COLON character (:), it must also be an absolute
URL.
- Effect on...
link -
One of the following:
- Not allowed
- The keyword must not be specified on
link elements. - Hyperlink
- The keyword may be specified on a
link element; it creates a
hyperlink. - External Resource
- The keyword may be specified on a
link element; it creates an external
resource link.
- Effect on...
a and area -
One of the following:
- Not allowed
- The keyword must not be specified on
a and area elements. - Hyperlink
- The keyword may be specified on
a and area elements; it creates a
hyperlink. - External Resource
- The keyword may be specified on
a and area elements; it creates
an external resource link. - Hyperlink Annotation
- The keyword may be specified on
a and area 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+003A
COLON character but not listed in either this specification or on the aforementioned page must be
rejected 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+0041 (LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A) through U+005A (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
rel attribute on link, a, and area
elements in accordance to the "Effect on..." field. [[!MFREL]]
