Distinguishing a context document from an instance document

[lanthaler]

Currently there is no way to distinguishing a context document from an instance document if it isn't know beforehand. There are a couple of options to solve this issue:

• create a new MIME type
• use the form MIME type parameter, i.e., form=context
• include @context also in pure context documents

Using a MIME type (parameter) for this is problematic for client-side JavaScript implementations. Including @context also in context documents seems to be a straightforward and simple way to do it. The only issue then is to ensure that there isn't any data in a context document - but I'm not even sure if we need to do that.

Perhaps we also just say it's not important to be able to distinguish it because a client has to know what it requests!?

[lanthaler]

The same seems to apply to frames..

[lanthaler]

See also related issue: #36

[lanthaler]

It has been decided that external context documents have to include the @context keyword. This eliminates the need to distinguish context from instance documents.

The situation for frame documents is not clear yet so I leave this issue open for the moment. The simplest and cleanest solution IMHO would be to serve frame documents as JSON documents instead of JSON-LD documents. After all, they are not "valid" JSON-LD documents anyway.

[msporny]

Breaking out framing into a separate issue #30.

[msporny]

The spec has been updated to reflect the decision made in the Community Group call. Closing the issue.

[msporny]

http://json-ld.org/spec/ED/json-ld-syntax/20120122/#external-contexts