Re: Optional Backpointers from Targets to References

Use DASL just to discover references to a resource?  Depending on what you are using the backpointers for, that could put quite a load on your system.  And I would think the performance would negate its value.  The beauty of storing backpointers is that they are FAST, DIRECT, and EASY TO MAINTAIN.

>>> "Roy T. Fielding" <fielding@kiwi.ics.uci.edu> 09/18 7:41 PM >>>
I doubt that unrestricted backpointers to collection parents will be
implementable on general web servers, but I have no objection to defining
an optional backpointer property provided that it is also mentioned that
such a property is not a very good way to implement scalable systems.
I would expect any system that implemented such a thing would restrict
the backpointers to references within the same object repository
(whatever serves as the server backend).

The same functionality can be accomplished via a DASL query, regardless
of how the server backend works, which has the advantage of specifying
the scope of the query.  So, I don't think directly specifying
a property to hold that information should imply that the property is
maintained live.  OTOH, I'm not sure how the response to such a DASL
query would look like (i.e., if it would need DAV:references itself).

....Roy

Received on Wednesday, 23 September 1998 11:48:10 UTC