diaspora/diaspora — Issue #2440: Bad webfinger element
Author: afeder
Created: 2011-11-26 02:59:18+00:00
State: open

I just had a look at the federation protocol description in the wiki and I noticed that in the webfinger document for a user, an element of this type is required:

This is bad style in multiple ways:

1. The `href` attribute of `` elements is supposed to be an URI, per the [XRD 1.0 specification](http://docs.oasis-open.org/xri/xrd/v1.0/xrd-1.0.html#element.link). If you *must* include the verbatim public key in the document, you should use a [http://docs.oasis-open.org/xri/xrd/v1.0/xrd-1.0.html#element.property](`` element).

2. The `rel` attribute of `` elements *must* be an URI or a registered type, per the [XRD 1.0 specification](http://docs.oasis-open.org/xri/xrd/v1.0/xrd-1.0.html#element.link). If you want to use the `diaspora-public-key` moniker, you have to either namespace it, e.g. as `http://schema.diasporafoundation.org/diaspora-webfinger#public-key` or register it.

3. Why invent a new relation type for specifying keys? Why not use a (draft) standard ontology like [http://www.w3.org/ns/auth/cert](Cert)?