A portal for the state of the art of content negotiation
On the Web, it is possible to make a resource available using a uniform
resource identifier (URI). This resource can have several representations
described in different ways along a set of dimensions, forming a set of
variants. Content negotiation (CN) is the mechanism for selecting the
appropriate variant that conforms to a set of preferences (constraints).
Over the years, various dimensions of CN, styles of CN, as well as ways to
convey constraints have emerged to satisfy new requirements and solve new
use cases. However, searching and finding these CN features and grouping or
categorising them to classify and compare them to their predecessors for
example is still a missing piece in the literature. This paper presents a
new resource called Content Negotiation Theoretical Framework (CNTF). CNTF a
website that collects and categorises CN features into different groups:
styles, dimensions, etc. CNTF aims to collect use cases of CN, highlight
existing solutions if available, or suggest plausible ways to advance them.
CNTF also provides an ontology describing its content, and is also intended
to be used to disseminate our new proposals for advancing CN, making it a
sustainable and up-to-date digital survey of CN.