H59: Using the link element and navigation tools

The objective of this technique is to describe how the link element can provide metadata about the position of an HTML page within a set of Web pages or can assist in locating content with a set of Web pages. The value of the rel attributes indicates what type of relation is being described, and the href attribute provides a link to the document having that relation. Multiple link elements can provide multiple relationships. Several values of rel are useful:

• Start: Refers to the first document in a collection of documents.

• Next: Refers to the next document in a linear sequence of documents.

• Prev: Refers to the previous document in an ordered series of documents.

• Contents: Refers to a document serving as a table of contents.

• Index: Refers to a document providing an index for the current document.

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• HTML 4.01 LINK element

• HTML 4.01 link types

• Link Toolbar extension for Firefox

• Use <link>s in your document from W3C's Quality Web Tips

• LINK - Document Relationship from Web Design Group

• The 'link'-Element in (X)HTML

• G1: Adding a link at the top of each page that goes directly to the main content area
• G63: Providing a site map
• G64: Providing a Table of Contents
• G123: Adding a link at the beginning of a block of repeated content to go to the end of the block

Procedure

For a Web page that is within a sequence or collection of Web pages:

1. Check that all link elements pertaining to navigation occur in the head section of the document.

2. For each link element in the head section of the document which pertains to navigation, check that it contains at least:

   1. a rel attribute identifying the link type

   2. a valid href attribute to locate the appropriate resource

Expected Results

• All of the checks above are true.

If this is a sufficient technique for a success criterion, failing this test procedure does not necessarily mean that the success criterion has not been satisfied in some other way, only that this technique has not been successfully implemented and can not be used to claim conformance.