[Xesam] Meaning of xesam:url

[Fabrice Colin]

On Mon, 4 Aug 2008 20:46:40 +0200,  Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen wrote:
> 2008/8/3 Michael Albinus <michael.albinus at gmx.de>:
>> - The engines use xesam:url for providing further information. Examples:
>>
>>  * "file:///.../Mail/Local Folders/Inbox/?id=240915" means file "Inbox",
>>    char position 240915 (beagle)
>>
>>  * "/home/albinus/Mail/default/21/ChangeLog" means (email in) file
>>    "21", attachment "ChangeLog" (strigi)
>>
>>  * ".../gnome-keyring_2.20.orig.tar.gz/gnome-keyring-2.20/po/ChangeLog"
>>    means a file in a zipped tar (strigi)
>>
>>  I believe, such information shall be given in other xesam fields.
>
> Well, that's hard to decide. Requests for standardizing the contents
> of xesam:url has been aired a few times, but I think it is really hard
> to achieve. For example Evolution and KMail handles email uris very
> differently, same applies for all manner of similar apps between KDE
> and Gnome. It would almost be a whole spec in itself to do full
> standadization of this.
>
> I think you can only trust it when you have good reason to do so. Fx
> for files, web pages, and the likes. If you have apriori knowledge of
> your platform you can use them as well. For instance Gnome's deskbar
> can open the emails in Evolution.
>

Each engine is likely to have its own particular scheme for embedded
documents. How about separating the file URL and the internal path ?
For instance, for "file:///.../Mail/Local Folders/Inbox/?id=240915",
"xesam:url" would be set to "file:///.../Mail/Local Folders/Inbox" and
"xesam:ipath" to "/?id=240915".

This removes any doubt as to where exactly the component file is
located and doesn't prevent applications that understand the URL
scheme used in "xesam:ipath" to drill down deeper if necessary and get
to the actual document.

Fabrice