Re: Why do we need working resource ids ?

From: Geoffrey M. Clemm (geoffrey.clemm@rational.com)
Date: Tue, May 30 2000

  • Next message: Geoffrey M. Clemm: "Re: Workspaces as versionable resources"

    Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 12:10:40 -0400 (EDT)
    Message-Id: <200005301610.MAA23882@tantalum.atria.com>
    From: "Geoffrey M. Clemm" <geoffrey.clemm@rational.com>
    To: ietf-dav-versioning@w3.org
    Subject: Re: Why do we need working resource ids ?
    
    
       From: "Tim Ellison/OTT/OTI" <Tim_Ellison@oti.com>
    
       I agree.  Now that we have working resource URLs, let's drop the working 
       resource id.
    
       Did I hear you say revision id as well ?<g>
    
    Well, why not?  If you have a server-generated URL that identifies
    a revision, why have a separate server-generated id that identifies
    that revision as well?
    
    If a server wishes to automatically generate a short label
    (e.g. "1", "2", "2.1") that a user can use in a Target-Selector,
    then it can do so, but I see no reason to require it in the
    protocol (we can't standardize the form of that id in any case).
    
    Cheers,
    Geoff
    
    
       "Geoffrey M. Clemm" <geoffrey.clemm@rational.com>
    
          From: Edgar@EdgarSchwarz.de
    
          a CHECKOUT returns a working resource id. Wouldn't it be possible
          to drop that ?  Normally a CHECKOUT works in the context of a
          workspace (explicit or implicit). So I expect a server to give me
          the working resource if I later GET and specify versioned resource
          and workspace.
    
       I believe Edgar makes an excellent point here.  Until recently, our
       answer would have been "because a server does not allocate a URL for
       each working resource, and so a working resource id is required for
       those working resources without their own URL's".  But if we take the
       design teams recommendation from last week and require that a server
       provide a working resource URL for every working resource, then
       working resource id's are no longer needed.  I think this
       significantly simplifies the protocol, so I vote to accept Edgar's
       suggestion.  We then just need an optional argument to the CHECKOUT
       routine that tells the server to allocate a new URL for the working
       resource (by default, the server would just use the request URL, just
       as is done in a workspace context).  In any case, the URL for the
       working resource created by the CHECKOUT routine would be returned in
       the Location response header.
    
          BTW, the introduction to workspaces in 7.1 is too technical IMHO.
          It should describe what we want to achieve with it. E.g. that it
          is a filter or view which can help authors to coordinate their work.
          Also I think a workspace server shouldn't define a 'request workspace',
          but a 'user workspace' if no workspace header is given for a request.
    
       I believe that this concern is addressed by the proposal to model a
       workspace as just a special kind of collection.  I'll try to get something
       written up this week -- please let me know if the new description
       provides a simpler model for workspaces (I believe it does).
    
       Cheers,
       Geoff