A URL in the Wiki Server Url Scheme has the prefix wiki-server:. The rest of the URL is an ordinary URL that returns a page (probably in XML) that in effect advertises a given wiki server and the wiki script or scripts that it provides. The intention is that the user's browser will interpret a wiki-server: URL by reading the specified XML file and providing the user with options to subscribe to one of the scripts for the purpose of interpreting URL's in the Wiki Url Scheme. The user's subscription may be maintained locally, or it may be maintained on their own wiki server, the presumption being that they interpret Wiki Url Scheme URL's by passing the topic name to a script on their own server, which then checks which of the server's it is subscribed to have pages on that topic.
The server advertisement page would also contain URL's for files that list the topics that a server currently has pages on. By caching and occasionally updating these pages, a subscribing server or client can efficiently resolve Wiki Url Scheme URL's even when they have subscribed to hundreds or thousands of other wiki servers. -- Philip Dorrell.
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