Re: Possible bug mod_dav 1.0.2

Julian, you've reported a bug for mod_dav and Xythos WFS:

"a) Set a dead property with no namespace, for instance by:

<propertyupdate xmlns="DAV:">
	<set>
		<prop>
			<bar xmlns="">123</bar>
		</prop>
	</set>
</propertyupdate>

This works, no error is reported."

Is it your contention that an error SHOULD be reported?  That was unclear
from the mail and posting.

I've taken a look at the primary sources:

From http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-xml-names-19990114/#NT-NCName:

"The attribute's value, a URI reference, is the namespace name identifying
the namespace. The namespace name, to serve its intended purpose, should
have the characteristics of uniqueness and persistence. It is not a goal
that it be directly usable for retrieval of a schema (if any exists). An
example of a syntax that is designed with these goals in mind is that for
Uniform Resource Names [RFC2141]. However, it should be noted that ordinary
URLs can be managed in such a way as to achieve these same goals."

From http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2396.txt:

"A URI reference that does not contain a URI is a reference to the current
document."

However, the "current document" does not have an identity, so this can't
work for WebDAV requests.  This is unfortunately ambiguous, but I conclude
that the original request that is mentioned in this bug should never have
been accepted, because it contains a null namespace which can't be a
reference to the current document.  It should have been rejected with 400
Bad Request. Do you agree?

Lisa

Received on Monday, 15 October 2001 17:41:31 UTC