Hints and internationalized link titles
05Target attributes can help an application label or choose a link. A hint does not override the response that is actually retrieved.
title="next chapter" supplies a fallback; title*=UTF-8'de'n%c3%a4chstes%20Kapitel supplies the German label nächstes Kapitel. SHOULD prefer title* when both appear.
Source for this drawing: RFC 8288 · Read RFC section 3.4.1 ↗
New to this? Start hereA quick picture + helpful background
A message needs an address.
Think of a packet as a small addressed envelope. Devices pass it onward; transport protocols decide what delivery promises an application gets.
Helpful first, if these ideas are unfamiliar
These pictures are analogies to help you learn. The linked RFC explains the actual rules.
Terms in this drawing
- Hint
- An expectation an application may use; it is not a replacement for actual response metadata.
- title*
- An internationalized title parameter encoded using RFC 8187.
Related RFCs and changes
“Updates” changes part of an earlier RFC. “Obsoletes” replaces it. This list shows selected related documents.
hreflang and type are hints. They do not override Content-Language or Content-Type on a response obtained by following the link.
- hreflang and type are hints. They do not override Content-Language or Content-Type on a response obtained by following the link.
- Because slash is not allowed in an HTTP token, a media type such as type="application/json" must use quoted-string syntax. title, title*, type and media each ignore occurrences after the first as specified.
- title is a human-readable label. title* can carry character-set and language information using RFC 8187. If both appear, applications SHOULD use title* for the title attribute.
- The non-normative Appendix B algorithm’s verified erratum 5878 applies star-form normalization to target_attributes, not to the earlier link_parameters list. It does not make rel* or anchor* general model parameters.
The observed GET response below is a chosen example: the Link hints application/json and de, but the actual response says text/html and en. The client must not replace those observed headers with the hints. The official next-chapter title example UTF-8'de'n%c3%a4chstes%20Kapitel decodes to nächstes Kapitel, with German language de and UTF-8 bytes C3 A4 for ä. It is a label, not a URI or executable text.
Read the RFC section ↗