Re: Multi-GET, extreme compression?

A requester does not necessarily need to know everything they are
getting in advance.

That is, assume that a server defines a set of N resources and assigns
that set a singular url that represents the entire collection. When I
do..

  MGET /resource/set HTTP/2.0

The server responds by opening N server-push response streams back to
the client, each associated with the original MGET. Each would have
it's own Content-Location and Cache-Control mechanisms allowing
intermediate caches to still do the right thing. The client does not
necessarily know what all it is getting from the server in advance but
knows it needs to be prepared to handle multiple items.

Alternatively, the MGET could include multiple individual URLs, in
which case it still actually behaves the same way. The only difference
is that the client has a better understanding of exactly what it's
wanting to retrieve.

example:

MGET /assets/*.js HTTP/2.0   --> Get all the javascript files
MGET /assets/*.png HTTP/2.0  --> Get all the image files

If the cache is able to keep track of exactly which resources were
pushed in response to the MGET, then caches could keep right on doing
the right thing.

Since the resources are sent via server push, the server is
responsible for determining the priority for which resources get sent.

Yes, largely theoretical and easily abused for sure. But ought to at
least be something worth investigating.

- James

On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 3:19 PM, Roberto Peon <grmocg@gmail.com> wrote:
> MGET (or whatever batch request) implies you know all of what you're
> requesting when you're requesting it, which is rarely the case.
> As a result, my guess is that this won't solve the prioritization issue for
> the browser.
> -=R
>
>
> On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 3:07 PM, James M Snell <jasnell@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> An mget that leverages server push in http/2 and individual cacheable
>> response streams would be very interesting and could address at least some
>> of the prioritization issues.
>>
>> On Feb 17, 2013 12:17 PM, "Helge Heß" <helge.hess@opengroupware.org>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> On Feb 17, 2013, at 11:18 AM, Cyrus Daboo <cyrus@daboo.name> wrote:
>>> > We added a multiget REPORT to CalDAV (RFC4791) and CardDAV (RFC6352)
>>> > which is used by clients when sync'ing a lot of resources (e.g., initial
>>> > account setup). The one major criticism has been lack of cacheability of the
>>> > individual resources included in the multiget.
>>>
>>> The other major criticisms being:
>>> a) content needs to be XML encoded
>>> b) only allows for GETs, not for other operations
>>>
>>> I'd also like to see a generic, HTTP-level BATCH request. Please lets not
>>> do 'just' an MGET.
>>>
>>> hh
>>>
>>>
>

Received on Monday, 18 February 2013 00:58:58 UTC