NULL resources and PUT and MKCOL

Jim Whitehead says (about NULL resources whose URL ended in '/')...
"Hmm, it seems reasonable to me to allow PUT as well -- it would create a
collection and set its body, even though it has no children.

> If no trailing slash is sent, the server probably needs to
> assume that the client might have just not sent the slash and
> allow a MKCOL or a PUT.

In this case, I think the MKCOL should be refused."

PUT is not allowed on collections, MKCOL must be used. This shouldn't be
different for NULL resources as they are resources that exist in name (and
properties) only. They don't have a resource type or body. So the ending /
doesn't matter, its a NULL resource, not a collection or basic resource. PUT or
MKCOL should be allowed on a NULL resource to establish their resource type
and/or set their body. PUT creates a basic resource, and MKCOL creates a
collection. The server shouldn't make any assumptions about the type of a NULL
resource from its URL as the resource has no type.

The spec isn't specific on this, but the preceeding logic seems consistent with
the spirit of the spec, meets reasonable expectation, and minimizes the number
of special cases.

Received on Monday, 26 July 1999 21:06:20 UTC