How Is This Being Parsed? Mod_Rewrite?

[HartleySan]

I just saw something in the source code for a page that I've never seen before.

If you go to manta.com and open the source code, at the top, you'll see the following link to a CSS file:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://m3.manta-r1.com/aggregator/7ebb2fb/css-min/manta::css::company_profile::connections/manta::css::dialogs::manta_dialog/manta::css::component_library::libraries/manta::css::component_library::table::table_all/manta::css::component_library::form::form_all/manta::css::component_library::heading::heading/manta::css::component_library::text::text/manta::css::component_library::links::links/manta::css::component_library::divider::divider/manta::css::component_library::list::list/manta::css::component_library::dropdown::dropdown/manta::css::component_library::button::button/manta::css::component_library::button::buttonskins/manta::css::component_library::template::template/manta::css::component_library::menu::menu/manta::css::component_library::grid::grids/manta::css::component_library::box::box/manta::css::component_library::box::box_skins/manta::css::component_library::box::tabs::tabs/manta::css::component_library::badge::badge/manta::css::component_library::media::media/manta::css::component_library::content/manta::css::component_library::icons/manta::css::component_library::titles/manta::css::component_library::spacing::space/manta::css::component_library::popup::popup/manta::css::component_library::tooltip::tooltip/manta::css::component_library::textExpand::textExpand/manta::css::component_library::completeness::completeness/manta::css::component_library::frame::frame/manta::css::component_library::ad::ad/manta::css::component_library::helpers/manta::css::poststatus/manta::css::jqueryui::jquery-ui-1.10.2.custom::css::custom-theme::jquery-ui-1.10.2.custom/manta::css::home/manta::css::suggested_cos/manta::css::diet/manta::css::adsense/manta::css::verify_dialog_v2/manta::css::diet_header2/manta::css::diet_drawer.css" type="text/css" />

What is up with all of those double colons? What syntax is that?

I didn't know that double colons were allowed in URLs. It seems like they're being used to load certain groupings of CSS definitions, but I really don't know.

Are they being used as arbitrary delimiters for mod_rewrite to parse later? What do you all think?

 

Thanks.

[Larry]

That's new to me. I've looked a couple of the URLs in that link and didn't see anything meaningful. I suspect your hunch is correct, though: a dynamic way to dictate what CSS values should be returned. Seems like a lot of information to pass in a URL. I wonder what the arguments are for this approach. Dynamic normally means less efficient.

[HartleySan]

Thanks for the reply, Larry.

I suppose it's just something that that company is doing then, as opposed to a new way of doing things. I'll dig a little deeper and see if I can find something.

 

Also, I clicked on that link in the source code to view the CSS, and even with that restricted list of CSS definitions, the CSS by itself came out to almost 300 kB.