RE: Clarification of URI vs. Resource

> Jim said...
>
> > The DAV spec. follows the convention of the HTTP spec. for DELETE, which
> is
> > that DELETE doesn't just break the mapping between URL and resource, it
> also
> > deletes the resource as well.  As a result, it made sense, when
> extending
> > DELETE to collections, to delete all resources as well as breaking the
> > mapping between URLs and resources.
>
> And in light of the existance of references and the fact that the resource
> to URI mapping is no longer 1:1 (at least in this thread), do you still
> think that deletion of the resource is the appropriate
> extrapolation of the
> HTTP behavior?
>
> Jason.
>

Yes, I do still feel that deletion of the resource is the correct behavior.
The editors of the HTTP spec. were well aware that the URI to resource
mapping could be more than 1:1 when they wrote the language for DELETE for
individual resources.  I feel that if different semantics are desired, then
a different method should be defined -- perhaps one called UNMAP, which has
the semantics of removing the mapping between a URI and its resource,
leaving the resource unaffected.  But, I don't think such a method should be
introduced into the WebDAV Distributed Authoring Protocol.

If you wish, you could write up an Internet-Draft describing this feature.

- Jim

Received on Sunday, 15 November 1998 20:56:05 UTC