w3c / w3c/activitystreams

AS2 Link's anchor/context is unclear

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#665 4 comments 0 reactions 1 assignee View on GitHub

@evanp is already working on this.

Since Jan 19, 2026.

needs-fep Next version
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Description

Problem

AS2 defines as:Link closely aligning with Web linking as defined in https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8288

However, the link context is unclear for any given as:Link node. We have as:href for the link target, but what is the link context?

Analysis

inferred from as:url?

At best, we might say when an as:Link is the value of as:url, the link context is the object which has the as:url. In other words, the link context is the subject of the as:url predicate:

{
  "id": "foo",
  "url": {
    "type": "Link",
    "href": "baz",
    "_:anchor": "foo" // inferred, maybe? where _:anchor is defined equivalently to RFC 8288
    "rel": "bar"
  } 
}

This doesn't help us when we use as:Link outside of as:url, though, does it? Can we generalize this kind of assumption? Say when the as:Link is the value of as:image or as:icon or some other property.

Prior exploration

See old tangential issues:

  • #347
  • #348
  • #364
  • #47 -- this one is funny because instead of "remove rel" i would say "add anchor"

Summary

This needs further consideration:

  • I'd say this should be "Needs primer", but it is unclear what to say in that primer page.
  • It might be "Needs FEP", because a FEP might define an "anchor" property similar to RFC 8288.
  • Most likely it is "Next version" because it is a shortcoming of AS2-native terms and data models.

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