Re: non-HTML resources in webdav spec

On Tue, 12 Nov 1996, Larry Masinter wrote:

> If we have a simple external format for metadata, we can send a
> document and its metadata together using multipart/related.
>

I like this idea. In fact, I've been experimenting with the idea of using
multipart/related in another context to transfer database records. My only
question is whether the experimental status of the RFC will pose a problem
for us. If so, what do we need to do?
 
> I think we should consider what it takes to make WEBDAV work over
> email, e.g., where you MAIL an update to the web server as an
> attachment.
> 

Probably not much. After all, both SMTP mail and HTTP use the same
messaging model(modulo details like Content-Transfer-Encoding, but that
shouldn't affect us.)

> If we're careful about data formats, this should work as well as using
> HTTP. (This is an argument for tipping the balance toward 'new mime
> types' rather than 'new method names' since mail really only has
> POST).
> 
> Larry
> 

Or, as I suggested elsewhere, we could introduce a single media type and
use parameters. It just seems like we're asking for trouble by introeducing
a separate media type for each action we wish to support. Even with
methods, we could include the method in the RFC-822 header, perhaps as
X-WEBDAV-Method: or some such thing. (Not that I advocate this approach.)

---
Gregory Woodhouse     gjw@wnetc.com
home page:            http://www.wnetc.com/home.html
resource page:        http://www.wnetc.com/resource/

Received on Wednesday, 13 November 1996 01:52:17 UTC