RE: Resources and representations (was RE: Subgroup to handle semantics of HTTP etc?)

> From: Williams, Stuart (HP Labs, Bristol)
> [ . . . ]
> The HTTP range question simply asks what sort of things can
> an HTTP URI refer to?
> And the answer given is 'any kind of thing' (whether or not
> their is a '#' in the spelling of the URI).

True, but to be clear, the WebArch also imposes some additional constraints that depend on: (a) what kind of resource is denoted; and (b) the media type returned when the URI is dereferenced.  In particular:

 - If the URI denotes a non-information resource and the URI has a fragment identifier and a 200 response is returned when the racine (the part before the '#') of the URI is dereferenced, then the media type returned must be a media type that permits its fragment identifiers to denote arbitrary resources.   For example, you may return RDF but *not* (currently) HTML, because the media type for RDF permits a fragment identifier to denote anything, whereas in HTML a fragment identifier denotes a location within the document.

 - If the URI denotes a non-information resource and the URI does NOT have a fragment identifier then the server should not return a 200 response when the URI is dereferenced.  (Instead it should return a 303 response, redirecting to an information resource where a description of the original non-information can be obtained.)




David Booth, Ph.D.
HP Software
+1 617 629 8881 office  |  dbooth@hp.com
http://www.hp.com/go/software

Opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not represent the official views of HP unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Received on Wednesday, 24 October 2007 15:29:50 UTC