XML in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

xlink:show

The optional xlink:show attribute has five possible values that suggest in what context the application loading an XLinked resource should display that resource:

new

Open a new window and show the content of the link’s URI (the ending resource) in that window.

replace

Show the ending resource in the current window, replacing the current document.

embed

Embed a picture of the ending resource in the current document at the location of the link element.

other

Exhibit some behavior other than opening a new window, replacing the document in the existing window, or graphically embedding the resource in the existing document. Exactly what that behavior is may be specified by other, nonstandard markup that a particular application understands.

none

Specify no behavior.

All five of these are only suggestions that browsers or other applications following XLinks are free to ignore. For example, a web spider would not open a window for any link and might ignore embedded links and treat the other four types identically. Mozilla might open a new tab in an existing window for xlink:show="new" rather than creating a completely new window. This is all allowed as long as it makes sense in the context of the application.