A link relation is a descriptive attribute attached to a hyperlink in order to define the type of the link, or the relationship between the source and destination resources. The attribute can be used by automated systems, or can be presented to a user in a different way.
In HTML these are designated with the rel attribute on link, a or area elements. Example uses include the standard way of referencing CSS , which indicates that the external resource linked to with the href attribute is a stylesheet, so a web browser will generally fetch this file to render the page. Another example is rel="shortcut icon" for the popular favicon icon.
Link relations are used in some microformats (e.g. rel="tag" for tagging), in XHTML Friends Network (XFN), and in the Atom standard, in XLink, as well as in HTML. Standardized link relations are one of the foundations of HATEOAS as they allow the user agent to understand the meaning of the available state transitions in a REST system.
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has a registry of standardized link relations, and a procedure for extending it defined in RFC 5988. HTML 5 also defines valid link relations.
Read more about Link Relation: Rev Attribute
Famous quotes containing the words link and/or relation:
“Elephants walking
Along the trails
Are holding hands
By holding tails.”
—Lenore M. Link (fl. 1937)
“Science is the language of the temporal world; love is that of the spiritual world. Man, indeed, describes more than he explains; while the angelic spirit sees and understands. Science saddens man; love enraptures the angel; science is still seeking, love has found. Man judges of nature in relation to itself; the angelic spirit judges of it in relation to heaven. In short to the spirits everything speaks.”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)