Embedded Annotations

One of the key features of annotation is the ability to link not only to the top of a document, but to passages within it. We can think of an annotation as an arrow with a payload, pointing at a target. The target in this analogy is a piece of text at a certain point within a document. The payload is the body of the annotation, containing the thoughts of the annotator about the target.

We have created embedded annotations with this in mind. By embedding an annotation in your website, blog or anywhere else, you can express your thoughts on a piece of information both at its source and on your site.

The embedded annotation works similarly to embedded Youtube videos and tweets. A short snippet of code that you embed into your site fetches the annotation from our API and renders it inline. In the future, we will be introducing a way to insert a self contained annotation using a longer snippet of code that does not depend on our API.

There are three different kinds of embedded annotations- corresponding to a highlight, a source level annotation, and an annotation reply.

Embedded Highlight

[hyp-embed-source domain=”plosone.org” title=”PLOS ONE: How Load-Carrying Ants Avoid Falling Over: Mechanical Stability during Foraging in Atta vollenweideri Grass-Cutting Ants” link=”https://www.facebook.com/” excerpt=”The effects of load size on locomotory performance are therefore essential for the understanding of foraging economics”]

A highlight is an annotation which refers only to a target, with no associated payload. Embedded, it just displays the source quote, along with a link that will take a user with the Hypothesis browser extension to that part of the source document.

Embedded Annotation

[hyp-embed-source domain=”plosone.org” title=”PLOS ONE: How Load-Carrying Ants Avoid Falling Over: Mechanical Stability during Foraging in Atta vollenweideri Grass-Cutting Ants” link=”http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0052816″ excerpt=”The effects of load size on locomotory performance are therefore essential for the understanding of foraging economics” child_user=”antonymous” child_time=”Jan 3, 2013 9:10am” child_annotation=”For such optimal behavior to be selected in individual members of a colony, it is necessary that any and all selective pressures on a colony reduce directly to its individual workers and, further, that no interaction effects exist among workers.”]

A source-level annotation is created when a user highlights a piece of a source document and annotates it, adding a body. Embedded, it shows the target and the payload below it, using the same styling used in our app. This could be useful if you are writing about an annotation that someone else has made, or simply as a convenient way to integrate your annotations into your writing.

Embedded Reply

[hyp-embed-reply domain=”plosone.org” title=”PLOS ONE: How Load-Carrying Ants Avoid Falling Over: Mechanical Stability during Foraging in Atta vollenweideri Grass-Cutting Ants” link=”http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0052816″ parent_user=”antonymous” parent_time=”Jan 3, 2013 9:10am” parent_annotation=”For such optimal behavior to be selected in individual members of a colony, it is necessary that any and all selective pressures on a colony reduce directly to its individual workers and, further, that no interaction effects exist among workers.” child_user=”jehan” child_time=”Jan 4, 2013 3:45pm” child_annotation=”isn’t it possible that the foraging efficiency of individual ants is so important to the colony’s ability to eat that it has a disproportionate effect on the colony’s welfare? i imagine that if the ants most often carry things alone and not in groups, the pressures do largely reduce to an individual worker carrying an item.”]

An annotation reply is when you annotate someone else’s annotation. Embedding this type of annotation displays both the reply, and the original annotation over it for context. The original annotation is rendered in a lighter shade to keep focus on the reply.

You’ll notice in the lower right the indication of where the annotation is stored. In this example, it’s hypothes.is.