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:
“To one who is accustomed to thinking a lot, every new thought that he hears or reads about immediately appears as a link in a chain.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“There is the falsely mystical view of art that assumes a kind of supernatural inspiration, a possession by universal forces unrelated to questions of power and privilege or the artist’s relation to bread and blood. In this view, the channel of art can only become clogged and misdirected by the artist’s concern with merely temporary and local disturbances. The song is higher than the struggle.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)