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Process for Including Extensions in Activity Streams 2.0

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-

- This document describes the process and criteria for approving extensions - for inclusion in the main Activity Streams 2.0 context document. -

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-

- This is a draft Note for publication by the SocialCG. It is not a W3C - recommendation. -

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Motivation

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- Activity Streams 2.0, as described in [[activitystreams-core]] - and [[activitystreams-vocabulary]] is a vocabulary for representing - social data. It is used by, among others, the [[activitypub]] API and protocol. - It is designed to be extensible, so that new terms can - be used by publishers and consumers. -

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- Extensions provide at least the following benefits: -

- -

- Any publisher can define an extension to Activity Streams 2.0, and use it in - published documents. For example, a publisher could define an extension - that provides a term for the favorite ice cream flavor of a person. -

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-
- Context document for the example favorite ice cream flavor context. -
-
- 
-              {
-                  "@context": {
-                      "ic": "https://flavors.example/ns/icecream#",
-                      "favoriteIceCreamFlavor": {
-                          "@id": "ic:favoriteIceCreamFlavor",
-                          "@type": "@id"
-                      },
-                      "Chocolate": "ic:Chocolate",
-                      "Vanilla": "ic:Vanilla",
-                      "Strawberry": "ic:Strawberry",
-                      "Pistachio": "ic:Pistachio"
-                  }
-              }
-
-
-
-

- This publisher, or any other publisher, can create Activity Streams 2.0 - documents that use this extension. -

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-
- Example of a person with a favorite flavor of ice cream term. -
-
- 
-              {
-                  "@context": [
-                      "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",
-                      "https://favorites.example/ns/icecream"
-                  ],
-                  "id": "https://example.com/people/evan",
-                  "type": "Person",
-                  "name": "Evan Prodromou",
-                  "favoriteIceCreamFlavor": "Pistachio"
-              }
-
-
-
-

- If the publisher uses different extensions in the same - document with different terms, they will need to resolve - those naming conflicts by hand. -

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- Example of using two extensions with conflicting terms for "Chocolate" - as an ice cream flavor and as a color of a horse's coat. -
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- 
-              {
-                  "@context": [
-                      "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",
-                      "https://favorites.example/ns/icecream",
-                      "https://horse.example/ns/colors"
-                  ],
-                  "id": "https://example.com/people/evan",
-                  "type": "Person",
-                  "name": "Evan Prodromou",
-                  "favoriteIceCreamFlavor": "ic:Chocolate",
-                  "horseCoatColor": "horse:Chocolate"
-              }
-
-
-
-

- Any publisher or consumer can implement this extension, subject to - the terms of the creator's license(s), if any. -

-

- Referencing many extensions can be a burden for publishers and consumers. - Although one or two lines in the @context property of the Activity Streams 2.0 - document may not be a problem, ten or twenty could be. In addition, - the more extensions that are used, the more likely it is that there will - be conflicts between terms. -

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- If an extension becomes very popular, it may be useful to include its terms - and namespace in the main Activity Streams 2.0 context document. - This will let publishers use the extension without having to include - an additional line of context. It also provides an opportunity to resolve - conflicts between terms in different extensions in the SocialCG. -

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- Thereafter, publishers will not need to include the extension's context URL - in their documents. The extension's terms will be available for all documents - that use the Activity Streams 2.0 context, without requiring a namespace - prefix. -

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- Theoretical example of using the favorite ice cream flavor term - after it has been included in the main Activity Streams 2.0 context - document. -
-
- 
-              {
-                  "@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",
-                  "id": "https://example.com/people/evan",
-                  "type": "Person",
-                  "name": "Evan Prodromou",
-                  "favoriteIceCreamFlavor": "Chocolate"
-              }
-
-
-
-

- This inclusion does not come without a price. First, the Activity Streams 2.0 - context document is that much larger, which has a cost in terms of readability, - maintainability, and bandwidth used. In addition, there is work for the - SocialCG in updating, documenting, harmonizing, and maintaining the context - document. -

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- This Note describes the criteria that the SocialCG will use to decide - whether the benefits of simplicity and clarity by including extension - terms in the main context document outweigh the costs of doing so. -

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- Properly implemented, this process provides a way to make Activity Streams 2.0 - a continuously evolving vocabulary, serving new needs for developers and - users, while maintaining the stability of the core terms. -

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Process

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These are the steps to including an extension in - the Activity Streams 2.0 context document.

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  1. Publish the extension for review. Extensions can be published - through the Federation Enhancement Proposal (FEP) process, as Notes of - the SocialCG, through another standardisation process, or by any other - organisations or individuals. See "Criteria" below for required content. -
    2. -
  2. - Implement the extension. See "Criteria" below for implementation requirements. -
    3. -
  3. - List the extension in the Activity Streams 2.0 extensions registry. -
    4. -
  4. - Propose the extension for inclusion. The proposal should include a justification - for inclusion of the extension. -
    5. -
  5. - Vote on the extension. The SocialCG will vote on whether to include the - extension in the Activity Streams 2.0 context document. -
    6. -
  6. - Create a draft version of the Activity Streams 2.0 context document including - the extension terms and namespace. This is the time to resolve any conflicts - with existing names in the context document. -
    7. -
  7. - Test the draft version of the Activity Streams 2.0 context document. -
    8. -
  8. - Publish the new version of the Activity Streams 2.0 context document. -
    9. -
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Criteria

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To be included in the Activity Streams 2.0, extensions SHOULD meet these requirements.

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Extensions to be included MAY meet these criteria:

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Previous Work

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- The section on Extensibility in [[activitystreams-core]] says, in part, - "Some popular extensions are included in the Activity Streams 2.0 namespace - document [...]". It does not define how extensions are added and which - criteria are used to decide whether an extension is popular enough to be - included. -

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- The section on Extensions in the Activity Streams 2.0 namespace document - says, in part, "The extensions must document their terms in a spec-like way - at a persistant [sic] URL. Approval of extensions will be by the Social Web WG - until it closes, and after that by the followup Community Group. Process and criteria - for extensions approval is being finalised and will be described or linked - to here in due course." -

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