Publishing WG Telco, 2017-08-28: Issue cleanup, Manifest serialization, WAM, metadata

See minutes online for a more detailed record of the discussions.

Issue cleanup

A number of open issues have accumulated over the weeks. With the latest changes in the Editor's Draft, and the discussions leading to that point, a number of issues have been closed.

Manifest Serialization

The group discussed whether the serialization of the manifest should follow a JSON syntax (without getting into the details on whether it should be JSON-LD, or any other dialect of JSON). After some discussions the group agreed to go for JSON.

Metadata Proposal

A Task Force has put up a first version of a document on metadata, which had a number of additional discussions off-line. The main question that had to be discussed during the call is to understand what makes a difference between a metadata and a manifest information item; these two coincide a bit in the document.

One approach that was put forward (but not yet decided) is based on what the metadata represents and what we are doing with it:

• is it for the user agent in order to consume?
• is it meant for external processors?

However, the borderline are nevertheless fuzzy (e.g., the schema.org based accessibility metadata, which is an important group of data).

Discussion will continue with a cleanup of the document.

Relationships to Web App Manifests

The group must answer on what the relationships are between the Web Publication manifest and the Web App Manifest (WAM). No decision can be taken in a short time; instead, the WG sets up a separate Task Force to look into this and come back to the WG. The goal is to be in position to talk to the WAM editors (at the latest at TPAC) but the requires some sort of a consensus in this group.