Re: Need some help

to follow up on what Daniel Dardailler said:
> 
> Yes, but the browser has no interest in fetching the bits (big) part
> of the image if it is only interested in the metadata part (title,
> desc, etc).
> 
> A way to ask only that part to the server is needed.
> 

If the browser and server share a structure model for the type of
the object in question, it would be possible to request part of
a remote resource.  

On the other hand, I believe it will be more productive in the
long run to go at it the other way around, via classes of queries
and subsets of meta-information.  In other words, the client poses
the server a query about the href-ed object and the server has
the option to consult server-maintained catalog data or mine
information out of the object's file.

I don't know if this is the right place to say it, but I really
do like the strategy that Daniel mentioned earlier, that we
have a server guideline concerning exception handling for the
case where an href points at an image file and the "Accept:"
header accepts only text.  In that case, I would like it if the
recommended exception-handling method were to reply with the
response that an "ABOUT" method would have elicited.  The
response to an hypothetical HTTP ABOUT method would, in some
priority order approximating the following,

	- follow an explicit "Content-About:" header value in the
	object's metadata known to the server.

	- search for an "about_foo.typ" object in the same directory
	as the requested foo.img object.  [.typ is in text/*]

	- search for an "about_this_*.typ" object in the same 
	directory.

	- search for a README.html or README.txt file in the
	same directory.

	- search data-storage containers outward until a resource
	matching the pattern is found.

There would be a site-maintenance guideling for the WebMaster to 

	- ensure that there is an "about_this_site.html" at the
	root level.

	- ensure that the "about_this_site.html" provides a method
	by which to request manual assistance.


--
Al Gilman

Received on Friday, 11 July 1997 12:41:11 UTC