XML in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Linkbases

One of the most revolutionary features of XLinks is the ability to define links between documents you don’t control. For instance, Example 10-1 is an extended link that describes and links three documents that neither of the authors of this book has anything to do with. Links between purely remote resources are called third-party links . A third-party link is created when an arc’s xlink:from and xlink:to attributes both contain labels for locator elements. Links from a remote resource to a local resource are called inbound links . An inbound link is created when an arc’s xlink:from attribute contains the label of a locator element and its xlink:to attribute contains the label of a resource element. Links from a local resource to a remote resource are called outbound links . An outbound link is established when an arc’s xlink:from attribute contains the label of a resource element and its xlink:to attribute contains the label of a locator element. Simple links are also outbound links.

An XML document that contains any inbound or third-party links is called a linkbase . A linkbase establishes links from documents other than the linkbase itself, perhaps documents that the author of the linkbase does not own and cannot control. Exactly how a browser or other application will load a linkbase and discover the links there is still an open question. It will probably involve visiting a web site that provides the linkbase. When the browser sees the extended link that attempts to ...