Subject: [Simple] Note on XCAP directories

From: Sebastian Ley <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2005 17:28:04 +0200

Hello,

I am currently studying the XCAP protocol for my diploma thesis. I have a 
small remark on section 8.2.1:

"If the parent URI has no path separator, it is referring to the directory 
into which the document should be inserted.  If this directory does not 
exist, the server MUST return a 409 response, [...]"

The draft repeatedly states, that directories do not necessarily mean 
filesystem directories, which is a reasonable assumption, since impementors 
may want to use database backends.

I see two problems:
1) XCAP does not have a means to create "directories".
That means that directories must be static and mandated by the application 
usage. An implementor of a specific application usage would have to make sure 
that the proper directories are created upon initializing an application 
usage for a user. In that case this structure should be part of an 
application usage description.

2) Databases usually have no directory concept.
Assuming that implemetors will use database rather than filesystem backends, 
they need additional logic to apply this concept to databases.

So, I propose one of the following:
Don't mandate the 409 but mandate that directories must be created if 
necessary. This adds more flexibility for the application usages, and allows 
database users to just use the document selector as index, without adding any 
directory support.

Regards,
Sebastian
 
-- 
PGP-Key: http://www.mmweg.rwth-aachen.de/~sebastian.ley/public.key
Fingerprint: A46A 753F AEDC 2C01 BE6E  F6DB 97E0 3309 9FD6 E3E6

_______________________________________________
Simple mailing list
[email-masked]
https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/simple