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-
- <modulesynopsis metafile="mod_negotiation.xml.meta">
-
- <name>mod_negotiation</name>
- <description>Provides for <a
- href="../content-negotiation.html">content negotiation</a></description>
- <status>Base</status>
- <sourcefile>mod_negotiation.c</sourcefile>
- <identifier>negotiation_module</identifier>
-
- <summary>
- <p>Content negotiation, or more accurately content selection, is
- the selection of the document that best matches the clients
- capabilities, from one of several available documents. There
- are two implementations of this.</p>
-
- <ul>
- <li>A type map (a file with the handler
- <code>type-map</code>) which explicitly lists the files
- containing the variants.</li>
-
- <li>A MultiViews search (enabled by the <code>MultiViews</code>
- <directive module="core">Options</directive>), where the server does
- an implicit filename pattern match, and choose from amongst the
- results.</li>
- </ul>
- </summary>
- <seealso><directive module="core">Options</directive></seealso>
- <seealso><module>mod_mime</module></seealso>
- <seealso><a href="../content-negotiation.html">Content
- Negotiation</a></seealso>
- <seealso><a href="../env.html">Environment Variables</a></seealso>
-
- <section id="typemaps"><title>Type maps</title>
- <p>A type map has a format similar to RFC822 mail headers. It
- contains document descriptions separated by blank lines, with
- lines beginning with a hash character ('#') treated as
- comments. A document description consists of several header
- records; records may be continued on multiple lines if the
- continuation lines start with spaces. The leading space will be
- deleted and the lines concatenated. A header record consists of
- a keyword name, which always ends in a colon, followed by a
- value. Whitespace is allowed between the header name and value,
- and between the tokens of value. The headers allowed are: </p>
-
- <dl>
- <dt><code>Content-Encoding:</code></dt>
- <dd>The encoding of the file. Apache only recognizes
- encodings that are defined by an <directive
- module="mod_mime">AddEncoding</directive> directive.
- This normally includes the encodings <code>x-compress</code>
- for compress'd files, and <code>x-gzip</code> for gzip'd
- files. The <code>x-</code> prefix is ignored for encoding
- comparisons.</dd>
-
- <dt><code>Content-Language:</code></dt>
- <dd>The language(s) of the variant, as an Internet standard
- language tag (<a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1766.txt"
- >RFC 1766</a>). An example is <code>en</code>,
- meaning English. If the variant contains more than one
- language, they are separated by a comma.</dd>
-
- <dt><code>Content-Length:</code></dt>
- <dd>The length of the file, in bytes. If this header is not
- present, then the actual length of the file is used.</dd>
-
- <dt><code>Content-Type:</code></dt>
-
- <dd>
- The MIME media type of the document, with optional
- parameters. Parameters are separated from the media type
- and from one another by a semi-colon, with a syntax of
- <code>name=value</code>. Common parameters include:
-
- <dl>
- <dt><code>level</code></dt>
- <dd>an integer specifying the version of the media type.
- For <code>text/html</code> this defaults to 2, otherwise
- 0.</dd>
-
- <dt><code>qs</code></dt>
- <dd>a floating-point number with a value in the range 0.0
- to 1.0, indicating the relative 'quality' of this variant
- compared to the other available variants, independent of
- the client's capabilities. For example, a jpeg file is
- usually of higher source quality than an ascii file if it
- is attempting to represent a photograph. However, if the
- resource being represented is ascii art, then an ascii
- file would have a higher source quality than a jpeg file.
- All <code>qs</code> values are therefore specific to a given
- resource.</dd>
- </dl>
-
- <example><title>Example</title>
- Content-Type: image/jpeg; qs=0.8
- </example>
- </dd>
-
- <dt><code>URI:</code></dt>
- <dd>uri of the file containing the variant (of the given
- media type, encoded with the given content encoding). These
- are interpreted as URLs relative to the map file; they must
- be on the same server (!), and they must refer to files to
- which the client would be granted access if they were to be
- requested directly.</dd>
-
- <dt><code>Body:</code></dt>
- <dd>New in Apache 2.0, the actual content of the resource may
- be included in the type-map file using the Body header. This
- header must contain a string that designates a delimiter for
- the body content. Then all following lines in the type map
- file will be considered part of the resource body until the
- delimiter string is found.
-
- <example><title>Example:</title>
- Body:----xyz----<br />
- <html><br />
- <body><br />
- <p>Content of the page.</p><br />
- </body><br />
- </html><br />
- ----xyz----
- </example>
- </dd>
- </dl>
- </section>
-
- <section id="multiviews"><title>MultiViews</title>
- <p>A MultiViews search is enabled by the <code>MultiViews</code>
- <directive module="core">Options</directive>. If the server receives a
- request for <code>/some/dir/foo</code> and
- <code>/some/dir/foo</code> does <em>not</em> exist, then the
- server reads the directory looking for all files named
- <code>foo.*</code>, and effectively fakes up a type map which
- names all those files, assigning them the same media types and
- content-encodings it would have if the client had asked for one
- of them by name. It then chooses the best match to the client's
- requirements, and returns that document.</p>
-
- <p>The <directive module="mod_mime">MultiViewsMatch</directive>
- directive configures whether Apache will consider files
- that do not have content negotiation meta-information assigned
- to them when choosing files.</p>
- </section>
-
- <directivesynopsis>
- <name>CacheNegotiatedDocs</name>
- <description>Allows content-negotiated documents to be
- cached by proxy servers</description>
- <syntax>CacheNegotiatedDocs On|Off</syntax>
- <default>CacheNegotiatedDocs Off</default>
- <contextlist><context>server config</context><context>virtual host</context>
- </contextlist>
- <compatibility>The syntax changed in version 2.0.</compatibility>
-
- <usage>
- <p>If set, this directive allows content-negotiated documents
- to be cached by proxy servers. This could mean that clients
- behind those proxys could retrieve versions of the documents
- that are not the best match for their abilities, but it will
- make caching more efficient.</p>
-
- <p>This directive only applies to requests which come from
- HTTP/1.0 browsers. HTTP/1.1 provides much better control over
- the caching of negotiated documents, and this directive has no
- effect in responses to HTTP/1.1 requests.</p>
-
- <p>Prior to version 2.0,
- <directive>CacheNegotiatedDocs</directive> did not take an
- argument; it was turned on by the presence of the directive by
- itself.</p>
- </usage>
- </directivesynopsis>
-
- <directivesynopsis>
- <name>ForceLanguagePriority</name>
- <description>Action to take if a single acceptable document is not
- found</description>
- <syntax>ForceLanguagePriority None|Prefer|Fallback [Prefer|Fallback]</syntax>
- <default>ForceLanguagePriority Prefer</default>
- <contextlist><context>server config</context><context>virtual host</context>
- <context>directory</context><context>.htaccess</context></contextlist>
- <override>FileInfo</override>
- <compatibility>Available in version 2.0.30 and later</compatibility>
-
- <usage>
- <p>The <directive>ForceLanguagePriority</directive> directive uses
- the given <directive
- module="mod_negotiation">LanguagePriority</directive> to satisfy
- negotation where the server could otherwise not return a single
- matching document.</p>
-
- <p><code>ForceLanguagePriority Prefer</code> uses
- <code>LanguagePriority</code> to serve a one valid result, rather
- than returning an HTTP result 300 (MULTIPLE CHOICES) when there
- are several equally valid choices. If the directives below were
- given, and the user's <code>Accept-Language</code> header assigned
- <code>en</code> and <code>de</code> each as quality <code>.500</code>
- (equally acceptable) then the first matching variant, <code>en</code>,
- will be served.</p>
-
- <example>
- LanguagePriority en fr de<br />
- ForceLanguagePriority Prefer
- </example>
-
- <p><code>ForceLanguagePriority Fallback</code> uses
- <directive module="mod_negotiation">LanguagePriority</directive> to
- serve a valid result, rather than returning an HTTP result 406
- (NOT ACCEPTABLE). If the directives below were given, and the user's
- <code>Accept-Language</code> only permitted an <code>es</code>
- language response, but such a variant isn't found, then the first
- variant from the <directive module="mod_negotiation"
- >LanguagePriority</directive> list below will be served.</p>
-
- <example>
- LanguagePriority en fr de<br />
- ForceLanguagePriority Fallback
- </example>
-
- <p>Both options, <code>Prefer</code> and <code>Fallback</code>, may be
- specified, so either the first matching variant from <directive
- module="mod_negotiation">LanguagePriority</directive> will be served if
- more than one variant is acceptable, or first available document will
- be served if none of the variants matched the client's acceptable list
- of languages.</p>
- </usage>
- <seealso><directive module="mod_mime">AddLanguage</directive></seealso>
- </directivesynopsis>
-
- <directivesynopsis>
- <name>LanguagePriority</name>
- <description>The precendence of language variants for cases where
- the client does not express a preference</description>
- <syntax>LanguagePriority <var>MIME-lang</var> [<var>MIME-lang</var>]
- ...</syntax>
- <contextlist><context>server config</context><context>virtual host</context>
- <context>directory</context><context>.htaccess</context></contextlist>
- <override>FileInfo</override>
-
- <usage>
- <p>The <directive>LanguagePriority</directive> sets the precedence
- of language variants for the case where the client does not
- express a preference, when handling a MultiViews request. The list
- of <var>MIME-lang</var> are in order of decreasing preference.</p>
-
- <example><title>Example:</title>
- LanguagePriority en fr de
- </example>
-
- <p>For a request for <code>foo.html</code>, where
- <code>foo.html.fr</code> and <code>foo.html.de</code> both
- existed, but the browser did not express a language preference,
- then <code>foo.html.fr</code> would be returned.</p>
-
- <p>Note that this directive only has an effect if a 'best'
- language cannot be determined by any other means or the <directive
- module="mod_negotiation">ForceLanguagePriority</directive> directive
- is not <code>None</code>. In general, the client determines the
- language preference, not the server.</p>
- </usage>
- <seealso><directive module="mod_mime">AddLanguage</directive></seealso>
- </directivesynopsis>
-
- </modulesynopsis>
-