RE: [WARP] "uri" attribute is confusing

Hi Dom, All,

I am not convinced by the need to include the word "pattern" in the name of the attribute taken the current WARP text.
Specifically because the semantics of the value of the attribute is more like namespace or just the leading part of the URI.
Pattern would be ok, if e.g. we would use regular expression or similar construct in the value of the attribute.

On the other hand, I think that having some pattern mechanism (like e.g. regular expression) would help in having better semantics of the functionality currently proposed behind <access> element.
The recent need to handle local network [1] could be probably satisfied based on regular expression / pattern for IP address in HTTP URI (related to the issue with subdomains as in [2]).
The private IP address ranges [3] could be then possibly fine-tuned if required by the application.
Pattern mechanism could nicely complement (or maybe replace to some extent?) my proposal from [2], however, we would risk it being too complex (maybe very good for Perl people, but could blur the actual value for an average RE reader; so we may discard this RE idea, specifically because the security model should not be too complex IMHO in order to be widely and successfully deployed).
I assume that some pattern mechanism could be discussed in the light of the recent comments on WARP and proposal to use POWDER (a bit too rich also IMHO, but maybe some subset could be adopted).

Thanks,
Marcin

[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-webapps/2009OctDec/0011.html
[2] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-webapps/2009JulSep/0844.html
[3] http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1918

________________________________________
From: public-webapps-request@w3.org [public-webapps-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Dominique Hazael-Massieux [dom@w3.org]
Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 3:19 PM
To: public-webapps@w3.org
Cc: phila@w3.org
Subject: [WARP] "uri" attribute is confusing

Hi,

The attribute "uri" on the <access> element in WARP is somewhat
misleading - what it takes is more a URL pattern than a URI. I would
suggest renaming it in "urlpattern" or just "pattern" (unless there are
already many implementations that rely on that attribute name).

There may be lessons to be taken in designing these patterns from POWDER
http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/REC-powder-dr-20090901/ - although I suspect
the POWDER expressivity needs are much greater than what is needed here.

Dom




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Received on Thursday, 1 October 2009 21:14:30 UTC