XLink

XML Linking Language, or XLink, is an XML markup language and W3C specification that provides methods for creating internal and external links within XML documents, and associating metadata with those links.

The XLink specification

XLink 1.1 is a W3C recommendation and the successor of XLink 1.0, which was also a W3C recommendation.

Linking with XLink

XLink defines a set of attributes that may be added to elements of other XML namespaces. XLink provides two kinds of hyperlinking for use in XML documents. Simple links connect only two resources, similar to HTML links. Extended links can link an arbitrary number of resources.

Simple links

A simple link creates a unidirectional hyperlink from one element to another via a URI. Example:

Extended links

Extended links allow multiple resources, either remote or local, to be connected by multiple arcs. An arc is information about the origin, destination and behavior of a link between two resources. The origin and destination resources are defined by labels. By using one or more arcs, an extended link can achieve specific sets of connections between multiple resources.

XLINK (ISP)

XLINK originally was the eXterne Lokale Informatik-Netz Karlsruhe (the external connection of the computer science network of the universities in Karlsruhe, Germany).

It was created in 1984, when it offered one of the first UUCP connections from Germany to the USA (via UUNET), and from November 1989 it also offered Internet connectivity mainly to universities in the south of Germany.

XLINK was one of the founding members of RIPE and of DENIC; its autonomous system number (autnum) was AS517.

It was transformed into (part of) a company in 1993, and as such, competed with the UniDO ISP (incorporated as EUnet Germany) for the title of first commercial Internet service provider in Germany.

It was bought by Qwest in 1999 and contributed to and renamed to KPNQwest Germany in May 2000, which went bankrupt in the Internet bubble crash of 2002. Remnants exist in KPN Eurorings.

References

External links