W3C

The Web Platform Working Group invites implementations of HTML 5.1 2nd Edition Candidate Recommendation. This specification defines the 5th major version, first minor revision of the core language of the World Wide Web: the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). In this version, new features continue to be introduced to help Web application authors, new elements continue to be introduced based on research into prevailing authoring practices, and special attention continues to be given to defining clear conformance criteria for user agents in an effort to improve interoperability.

The CSS Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of CSS Overflow Module Level 4. This module contains the features of CSS relating to new mechanisms of overflow handling in visual media (e.g., screen or paper). In interactive media, it describes features that allow the overflow from a fixed size container to be handled by pagination (displaying one page at a time). It also describes features, applying to all visual media, that allow the contents of an element to be spread across multiple fragments, allowing the contents to flow across multiple regions or to have different styles for different fragments.

The XSLT Working Group has published XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 3.0 as a Recommendation. XSLT 3.0 enables transformations to be performed in streaming mode, where neither the source document nor the result document is ever held in memory in its entirety.

Another important enhancement is provided by XSL packages, to improve the modularity of large stylesheets, allowing stylesheets to be developed from independently-developed components with a high level of software engineering robustness.

XSLT 3.0 is designed to be used in conjunction with XPath 3.0, which offers higher-order functions. It also specifies the map functionality exactly as it is in the XPath 3.1 Recommendation, and implementors may also offer support for other XPath 3.1 additions compared to XPath 3.0, like arrays.

The RDF Data Shapes Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of Shapes Constraint Language (SHACL). This document defines the SHACL Shapes Constraint Language, a language for validating RDF graphs against a set of conditions. These conditions are provided as shapes and other constructs expressed in the form of an RDF graph. RDF graphs that are used in this manner are called “shapes graphs” in SHACL and the RDF graphs that are validated against a shapes graph are called “data graphs”. Such descriptions may be used for a variety of purposes beside validation, including user interface building, code generation and data integration. Comments are welcome through 6 July 2017.

The W3C Advisory Committee has filled four open seats on the W3C Advisory Board. Created in 1998, the Advisory Board provides guidance to the Team on issues of strategy, management, legal matters, process, and conflict resolution. Beginning 1 July 2017, the nine Advisory Board participants are Tantek Çelik (Mozilla), Michael Champion (Microsoft), Virginie Galindo (Gemalto), Jay (Junichi) Kishigami (NTT), Charles McCathie Nevile (Yandex), Natasha Rooney (GSMA), David Singer (Apple), Léonie Watson (The Paciello Group) and Judy Zhu (Alibaba). Many thanks to Chris Wilson (Google), whose term ends this month. Read more about the Advisory Board.

Digital Publishing Accessibility API Mappings (DPub-AAM) has been published as a Candidate Recommendation by Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) Working Group and is now undergoing implementation finalization and testing. DPub-AAM describes how roles in the Digital Publishing WAI-ARIA Module 1.0 should be exposed to accessibility APIs. Implementation of this specification makes it possible for assistive technologies to provide enhanced navigation among landmarks unique to digitally-published documents, and to identify document-specific features which should be presented to the user, such as crossing a page boundary. These mappings will also be used in part for verifying implementation success of Digital Publishing WAI-ARIA Module 1.0 which is already a Candidate Recommendation. The draft implementation report shows the progress of testing. Please send implementation information or comments by 7 July 2017. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

The Spatial Data on the Web Working Group invites implementations of Time Ontology in OWL Candidate Recommendation. The ontology provides a vocabulary for expressing facts about topological (ordering) relations among instants and intervals, together with information about durations, and about temporal position including date-time information. Time positions and durations may be expressed using either the conventional (Gregorian) calendar and clock, or using another temporal reference system such as Unix-time, geologic time, or different calendars.