RE: structured documents [draft-hopmann-collection-props-00.txt]

Our intent was that a structured document is treated by the server just like
any other collection (it is a collection).  However, the client can (if in
"read" or "browse" mode) display a structured document as a document and
allow the user to read the document without being aware of all the pieces of
the structured document.  

The pieces of the structured document are actually resources within the
collection, which means that old clients can  do authoring normally.
Clients that support structured documents also have the option to display as
a collection (i.e. so that one of the resources/pieces can be deleted).

Our spec does not define what the structure of a structured document is --
that should be handled by the default document, which could be an HTML page,
XML file or some other thing which defines how the pieces fit together.

Are there other required characteristics of a structured document?

Lisa

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Whitehead [mailto:ejw@ics.uci.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, January 12, 1999 10:04 AM
To: WEBDAV WG
Subject: RE: structured documents
[draft-hopmann-collection-props-00.txt]



> Is the nature and behaviour of structured documents specified at any other
> place in webdav specs? I note the term for the first time in "1.7 The
> isstructureddocument Property". Just to check, I went back through
> "draft-ietf-webdav-protocol-10" and find that the word
> "structured" appears in generic or colloquial senses only and that
> there is neither a description of the content nor one of the behaviour
> of such a resource.

You are correct -- structured (or compound) documents are not well defined
in any existing WebDAV specifications.

> If this document (draft-hopmann-collection-props-00.txt) is the only place
> where the term appears, then a more extensive definition and a distinction
> between structured documents and generic collections are necessary.

This seems quite reasonable -- otherwise, how would you know how to set the
property value?

> for
> instance, is the intended hierarchy
>  collection
>    structured-document
>      directory
> or is it
>  collection
>    structured-document
>    directory
> ?

I don't follow this, since my understanding of what is meant by structured
document in the WebDAV sense isn't covered by these two cases.  Could you
give some examples of what you mean here?

I'll let Lisa speak to her intent is when she says "structured document".

- Jim

Received on Tuesday, 12 January 1999 13:55:56 UTC