- From: Peter Raymond <Peter.Raymond@merant.com>
- Date: Thu, 3 May 2001 10:31:01 +0100
- To: ietf-dav-versioning@w3.org, w3c-dist-auth@w3.org
Hi, I am not sure that properties are necessarily "becoming a true part of the file", our system is a complete workflow based SCM system with build capabilities etc. WebDAV clients will be using the same repository/server as the rest of our application. Some of our properties like "workflow state" for example, are not directly related to the file content. We track the last modification time (in UTC) of the file content at check-in time. Separately we track the last time the file had any property changed etc, this includes promoting through the workflow, changing properties, locking/unlocking, adding/removing from a collection etc. One example of why we keep the "last modified" date separate is that our build system uses this to compare with timestamps of files on disk to decide if the file is out of date. If the WebDAV client set the last modification time each time a property was changed then the build system would think the file on disk was "out of date" compared to the file held in version control. I am in favor of Lisa's suggestion of having three timestamps. Regards, -- Peter Raymond - MERANT Technical Architect (ADM) Tel: +44 (0)1727 813362 Fax: +44 (0)1727 869804 mailto:Peter.Raymond@merant.com WWW: http://www.merant.com -----Original Message----- From: Douglas R. Steen [mailto:dsteen@ekeeper.com] Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2001 1:41 AM To: w3c-dist-auth@w3.org Subject: RE: File creation date, version creation date, and getlastmodified re: WebDAV. My vote would be changing getlastmodified when the properties change. As we use properties more and more, they become a true part of the file in the user experience. Trying to distinguish between the two ("I know you changed the billing number yesterday, but you didn't change the _content_ so the date still reads last week...") can be difficult. Unfortunately, it's a very easy shorthand for server implementations to use the file last-modified date for getlastmodified, and for the operating systems I know that reflects the date/time of the last content modification. Douglas R. Steen dsteen@ekeeper.com Drag-and-Drop Web File Management http://www.eKeeper.com -----Original Message----- From: w3c-dist-auth-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-dist-auth-request@w3.org]On Behalf Of Lisa Dusseault Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2001 4:25 PM To: DeltaV; w3c-dist-auth@w3.org Subject: File creation date, version creation date, and getlastmodified WebDAV people: RFC2518 leaves it carefully open whether 'getlastmodified' changes when properties of the resource change. It seems useful either way -- users might want to get the last time the content was changed, or they might want to see the last time the file was touched at all. Is there some precedent? Really, one might best be served by a new timestamp property, so the suite of timestamp-like properties would be - creationdate - time the content was last modified (etag changes, but etag doesn't provide a timestamp) - time the file was last touched Which one of the last two is most commonly handled by getlastmodified? Implementors speak up? DeltaV people: What does it mean to get the time file content was last "modified", if the file is versioned? I don't see that the behaviour of getlastmodified is specified for a Version-Controlled Resource, can this be a recommendation in the spec to promote consistency? For one thing, should 'getlastmodified' on the VCR change when it is checked out, or when it is checked in, or both? lisa
Received on Thursday, 3 May 2001 05:30:20 UTC