Re: OPTIONS method

> >Is there a header that can be passed with an OPTIONS method request
> >to probe for protocol support of a feature?
> >
> >OPTIONS * HTTP/1.1
> >query: foobar 
> 
> Not yet.  It would be a good project to come up with a complete definition
> of OPTIONS (the existing one is only a skeleton for future extension)
> including both the request and the response format.  I wouldn't do it
> as a header field, though. 
Why not?  

> There is a good reason why requests can
> contain bodies, and those bodies have a type, encoding, etc.
>
I dont understand the context of this sentence.

My intent with the OPTIONS method isnt referring to a request
per se, but a feature in the server.  Actually, feature is probably
a bad word to use, since its being used to represent other things
than what I think Im talking about...

"Protocol implementation support" is too long, but thats kind of what
I mean.  Id like to know if X server supports a certain response
code. Or, "does this server support XYZ protocol enhancement".

Since some of the complex issues were separated into separate drafts,
presumably to become 'adjunct RFCs', for lack of a better term, Im
looking for a way to determine which adjuncts a server implements.
In the case of the 305/306, they will likely be defined after 1.1
spec is complete ( a possibility).  

The cookie RFC and presumably a proxy-cookie draft->RFC would
fit this term.

I see this kind of like how TCP is really comprised of a number of
specs, which a TCP implementation should implement to be
considered generally compliant.

Therefore, I think that a modification to the OPTIONS method
or an additional header would suffice to determine 
if an important capability is present.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josh Cohen				        Netscape Communications Corp.
Netscape Fire Department	     	      "Mighty Morphin' Proxy
Ranger"
Server Engineering
josh@netscape.com                       http://home.netscape.com/people/josh/
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Received on Sunday, 15 June 1997 07:38:37 UTC