RESTful Web Services Cookbook

Appendix E. Link Relation Registry

This appendix lists all the registered link relation types documented at http://www.iana.org/assignments/link-relations/link-relations.xhtml and when to use them. The Web Linking Internet-Draft will consolidate this list when it is finalized.

alternate

Use this type when providing a URI to an alternative version of the same resource. You can use links with this type whenever a resource has alternate representations with distinct URIs.

<!-- Link to an alternate representation in the PDF format -->
<atom:link rel="alternate"
      href="http://www.example.org/report.pdf" type="application/pdf"/>

<!-- Link to an alternate representation in French -->
<atom:link rel="alternate"
      href="http://www.example.org/report.fr.pdf" hreflang="fr"
      type="application/pdf"/>

appendix

Use this type when linking to a resource that serves as an appendix for a collection of resources. Links with this relation type may be useful in content-centric applications.

<atom:link rel="appendix"
      href="http://www.example.org/books/restful-webservices-cookbook/appendix"/>

bookmark

This link relation type is used by blogging platforms such as WordPress to create permanent links to resources from their summaries.

<div id="p1">
  <h2>My First Post</h2>

  <p>Hello world. This is my first post.</p>

  <p><a href="/2009/10/1.html" rel="bookmark">Read more</a>.</p>
</div>

chapter, section, subsection

These relation types can be used to link to chapters, sections, and subsections in a collection of resources.