[Standards] [Dev] proposal: using a common mime type for TEI files

[Dieter Van Uytvanck]

On 16/06/16 20:35, Thomas Schmidt wrote:
> Therefore, we would need to distinguish this at whathever the place is
> where WebLicht distinguishes file formats. If it is via the mime type,
> we would need a mime type extension like "text/x-tei-isospoken+xml"
> vs. "text/x-tei-dta+xml". If it is on some other level, we would have
> to know which and agree on a suitable set of TEI variant identifiers.
> I'm copying relevant parts of the mailing list exchange below for your
> information.

Dear Thomas,

Thank you for this very insightful summary of the discussions on this
topic. Looking at all the suggestions made, I think having detailed
mimetype extensions would be the most convenient for most parties involved:

- It puts the responsibility of providing an exact data type for a file
at the side of the metadata creator/resource provider. This is always
better than relying on interpretation by a third-party tool.

- It does not require changes to (CMDI) metadata profiles.

- It makes it feasible for tool/data matching applications (WebLicht,
Switchboard, ...) to provide a meaningful processing application.

There are of course approaches on other levels too (like suggested by
Bart and Menzo), and these could be used in addition to the extended TEI
mimetypes:

- Matching applications could still try to parse a TEI file (in absence
of a detailed mime type) and make a guess about the sub-type, and using
@type where available. This is of course not trivial.

- The ParameterGroup in the CMDI description can be added. But in many
cases that requires metadata providers to change their profiles, which
means quite a bit of additional work.

I will join the TEI weblicht list, and try to gather a bit more concrete
information in the upcoming time at

https://trac.clarin.eu/wiki/TEI%20variants

(feel free to edit along)

When we have that additional information, we can try to come up with
concrete recommendations.

best regards,
-- 
Dieter Van Uytvanck
Technical Director CLARIN ERIC
www.clarin.eu | tel. +31-(0)850091363 | skype: dietervu.mpi