RE: Does DASL need to support structured queries?

At 10:50 AM 11/30/98 PST, David G. Durand wrote:
>... we still need
>a ... definition of the data model that we are using it as a
>format for. Unless this is in the DASL document, we don't have a data
>model. 

DASL does not introduce a data model, it uses WebDAV's.

Unfortunately, other than some posts by a few of the WebDAV authors, there
is nothing written about WebDAV's data model, and certainly no concensus
about it.

You are right to say this is a barrier.

>I know that some feel that the only properties supported by servers will be
>hardwired in, but I doubt that that assumption can hold up:

By "supported by servers" do you mean supported by PROPPATCH?  If so,
surely the WebDAV spec makes it clear that clients may set arbitrary 'dead'
properties?  Is there really any doubt about this?  Also, as far as I know
all three extant WebDAV implementations (mod_dav, PyDAV, and MS) support
dead properties.

Or did you mean "searchable by DASL"?

Although that's harder, it's still not unreasonable.  I would expect that
some implementations of DASL will only support search of properties chosen
by the server administrator (this allows for a easy and fast implementation
on existing RDB technology)  I expect others to allow search over *all*
properties.  The protocol says nothing about this, nor should it.

best regards

Jim



------------------------------------
http://www.parc.xerox.com/jdavis/
650-812-4301

Received on Wednesday, 2 December 1998 12:36:17 UTC