Re: VERSION

From: Geoffrey M. Clemm (geoffrey.clemm@rational.com)
Date: Thu, May 18 2000

  • Next message: Edgar Schwarz: "Re: draft-ietf-deltav04.5 now available"

    Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 17:47:13 -0400 (EDT)
    Message-Id: <200005182147.RAA06074@tantalum.atria.com>
    From: "Geoffrey M. Clemm" <geoffrey.clemm@rational.com>
    To: ietf-dav-versioning@w3.org
    Subject: Re: VERSION
    
    
       From: "Tim Ellison/OTT/OTI" <Tim_Ellison@oti.com>
    
       I would like to reopen the issue of bringing a resource under version
       control.  The intention would be to resolve the asymmetry of creating a new
       resource and bringing it under version control in the cases where the
       resource is bound to an unversioned collection compared to when the
       resource is bound to a versioned collection.
    
       When creating a new (data) resource in an unversioned collection the client
       is required to issue a PUT followed by a VERSION.  When creating a new
       resource in a versioned collection the client simply says PUT.
    
       It would seem preferable to have a consistent mechanism for this
       fundamental capability.  An alternative would be to allow unversioned
       resources inside versioned collections (again).
    
    I agree with Tim that this is a significant issue, and should be
    resolved.  Allowing unversioned resources to appear inside versioned
    collections wouldn't solve the problem, because there always will
    be servers that automatically put a resource under version control
    when you create it in "versioned" URL space.
    
    I believe the easiest way to make this consistent is to use
    CHECKIN as the VERSION method (something Jim Amsden I believe
    has suggested several times).
    
    This way a client will always just do a few PUT's and then issue a
    CHECKIN when it explicitly want a version to be created, and the
    client request sequence is the same whether or not the server
    automatically put the resource under version control after the first
    PUT.
    
    Cheers,
    Geoff