Re: 204 No Content for a resource which is known but has no representation yet?

On Mar 14, 2010, at 10:17 AM, Nathan wrote:

> Here is the full problem and solution I'd like to use:
> 
> I'm stuck with Linked Data, which is tied to the http scheme

No, it isn't, unless you mean the data you happen to be using
is only identified by http scheme URIs.

> and
> has a constraint that the http scheme URIs we use as identifiers must be
> dereferenced via http.

Are you making this up?  No known system that I am aware
of has that limitation.

> The only way is forwards from what I can tell.
> 
> As I see it (within the http scheme of uris), a resource is a conceptual
> map to anything; that anything either has a representation that can be
> sent via http or does not. In the case where it does not, the concept
> maps to an "empty set" of representations.

Not really, no.  HTTP provides an interface for interacting with
resources by way of making a request with a standard method upon
a request-target that is a URI (with various parts scattered about
for historical reasons).  HTTP provides that interface for URIs
of any scheme.  Naturally, the native "http" scheme is most popular
for this purpose because it maximizes the HTTP interface without
requiring additional name services beyond hostname resolution (DNS).

The GET method, when applied to any resource, means get me a
current representation of the identified resource.  HTTP doesn't
need to say how it is possible for the server to know or obtain
such a representation -- it simply does or does not do so.

> With regards the above this calls for the usage of only 4 http status
> codes (from what I can tell, certainly I could get by with them), as
> follows:
> 
> 204 No Content (in the case of GET), resource which maps to an empty set
> / does not have a representation of its own that can be transferred by
> the server over HTTP and no other resource is known which describes the
> requested resource.

No, 204 means no content is the reply.  It is never used with GET.
404 means there is no current representation (i.e., not found).

> 301 Moved Permanently, The requested resource has been assigned a new
> permanent URI and any future references to this resource SHOULD use one
> of the returned URIs.  Clients with link editing capabilities ought to
> automatically re-link references to the request-target to one or more of
> the new references returned by the server
> 
> 303 See Other, indicates that the requested resource does not have a
> representation of its own that can be transferred by the server over
> HTTP, and additionally specifies a resource which may provide
> information about the requested resource.

Yes, when used in response to GET.

> 410 Gone, The requested resource is no longer available at the server
> and no forwarding address is known.  This condition is expected to be
> considered permanent.  Clients with link editing capabilities SHOULD
> delete references to the request-target after user approval.
> 
> All of these codes are there already and do the job perfectly (imho),
> and the others do not matter with regards linked data since we aren't
> dealing with things which have a representation / entity.

Well, then you aren't using linked data.  I don't know what you
are doing, but it is almost certainly wrong to say that data has
no representation, and the whole point of linked data is to
link the data via representations.

> additionally, it may be worth noting that I'm not doing any "content
> negotiation" with a 303 See Other, rather I'm doing any required content
> negotiation on the second resource, the one pointed do by the Location
> header; personally I find it cleaner to keep a distinction between
> resources with a representation and those without, and view content
> negotiation in response to a request on a resource with no
> representation as a cross cutting concern, hence dually seperated.

Agreed.

> I am aware this would be a refinement to the resolution of httpRange-14,
> have done vast amounts of research on this (more than I expected) and in
> reality I'm just a developer who is blocked on a project and I just need
> some kind person from IETF/W3C (pref TAG) to say this doesn't conflict
> with the architecture of the world wide web or conflict with HTTP/REST.
> 
> Which means, somebody like Larry, or Roy, Tim etc; or even Jonathan Rees
> as this very much ties in with the work on
> http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/awwsw/http-semantics-report.html

Good luck with that.  The semantics report postulates a theory
of existence for resources that simply does not matter to HTTP,
and hence will be irrelevant to any real system you might build
using HTTP aside from a closed-world graph theorem prover.

Even the REST notion of a discontinuous conceptual mapping function,
which says exactly the same thing as the "correspondences"
discussion in only four words, is merely an attempt to explain
reality to a formalist, not make a formal restriction on reality.

> I'm really stuck here, and it's having real effects on my daily
> life at home - I need to get this project finished and the above is the
> only realistic solution after all my hunting; I'm trying so hard to do
> things by the book  :(

Implement it first, using what works, and then tell the TAG
what the theory should be.

Cheers,

Roy T. Fielding                            <http://roy.gbiv.com/>
Chief Scientist, Day Software              <http://www.day.com/>

Received on Monday, 15 March 2010 00:23:08 UTC