RE: FW: DeltaV Passthrough issues

> "A PUT or PROPPATCH to a version-controlled
> resource with the DAV:auto-version property set
> will automatically check out that resource prior
> to executing the PUT or PROPPATCH.  If that
> resource is write-locked, the resource remains
> checked-out until the resource is unlocked, at
> which time the resource is checked in and a new
> version is created in the version history of
> that resource."
>
> That to me is "passthrough", even without the
> label target, because it bypasses the content or
> properties of the VCR in order to create a new
> version.

I just don't see how that can be interpreted as "passthrough".

To paraphrase, the steps are:

1) start with a checked-in VCR whose contents and dead properties are the
same as (i.e., copies of) a version.  The version is identified by the
DAV:checked-in property.

2) check out the VCR.  This has no effect on the version referred to in (1)
above.  Now the VCR is a checked-out VCR whose content and properties can
be modified (independently of any version).  The version this checked-out
VCR used to look like before it was modified is identified by the
DAV:checked-out property (in fact it will be the same vallue as the
DAV:checked-in used to have in step (1).

3) After making the required modifications, check-in the VCR.  This has two
effects, (a) the VCR cannot be further modified without checking it out
again, and (b) a copy of the now immutable VCR is placed in the version
history as a new version (whose DAV:predecessor-set by default will
identify the version referred to in step (1).

So the VCR does not "passthrough" any methods to the version it was
originally based on, but check-in on a VCR does have a side-effect on the
version history.

> How am I supposed to change the properties of the VCR itself?

Just PROPPATCH the checked-out VCR.

When checked in, the VCR's content, dead properties and live properties
identified in the DAV:initialize-version-content-and-properties
postcondition of Section 3.2 CHECKIN will be made those of the new version.

> The previous paragraph states:
>
> "In order to use methods like PUT and PROPPATCH to
> directly modify the content or dead properties of
> a version-controlled resource, the version-controlled
> resource must first be checked out.  When the checked-out
> resource is checked in, a new version is created in the
> version history of that version-controlled resource.
> The version that was checked out is remembered as the
> predecessor of the new version."

Yes, that say it much more eloquently.

> That is unacceptable.  It's completely unacceptable to
> create a new version of a resource, just in order to be
> able to modify a property like 'Last-published-version'
> on the VCR.  For the sake of conciseness, let's call
> this a "global" property: it applies to all versions, and
> can't have different values on different versions.

You say "unacceptable", but others say it is absolutely necessary that a
checked-in version-controlled resource has immutable properties and content
(for caching, delta-ing, reproducability, etc.)

Adding a "global" property to a particular resource and saying that it
applies to a set of resources seems like a misnomer.   ...but running with
your term for now,

> In order to modify a global property, does a new version
> have to be created? Even though nothing changed on the
> old version? (the only change, conceptually, is a dead
> property on the VCR).  If I understand the model correctly,
> that won't work because the properties of a checked-in
> VCR are the same as the properties of the checked-in version.
> So global properties can't be placed on VCRs at all.

Correct -- a VCR would be no place for such a global property.

> Where do global properties go, then? You state that rather
> than put global properties on the VCR, the client ought to
> put them on the VH:
>
>> It sounds like you're talking about properties on the
>> version history resource.  Your server of course must
>> then support the version history option, but then you
>> PROPPATCH the version history resource just as you
>> would PROPPATCH any other resource.

Right, since the history represents the entire set of versions, it seems
the appropriate place to put a property that refers to the entire set of
versions, like 'Last-published-version'.

> That's unacceptable.  First, as you point out, the server
> must support an extra resource, the VHR.  Then, in order
> to present a directory listing with the value of a global
> property like "Last-published-version" for each of n VCRs
> in a directory, the client would have to issue a depth:1
> PROPFIND request to find all the URLs to the VHRs, then
> issue n PROPFIND requests, one to each VHR independently,
> to get the values of "Last-published-version".

Correct -- makes that property report seem well worth the money <g>.

> However, the real showstopper is the lack of resource
> transparency.  Global properties, like "author" from Dublin
> Core, or "Editor-in-Chief", are hidden away in VHRs.  That
> means that versioning-unaware clients cannot interoperate
> with versioning clients on the same set of documents.  They
> can't even PROPFIND a set of VCRs to get properties which
> ought to exist.

I don't have any suggestions for you here since there is no property that
has the characteristic of being defined on a set of resources in this way.
all I can offer is that the version history resource has a URL that the
versioning unaware client can use to PROPFIND/PROPPATCH dead properties --
but that would not be the same URL as any version-controlled resource
(which is what I think you are asking for).

Tim

Received on Tuesday, 6 February 2001 07:00:43 UTC