Datatypes for Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) Properties
RFC 4316
| Document | Type | RFC - Experimental (December 2005; No errata) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Author | Julian Reschke | ||
| Last updated | 2015-10-14 | ||
| Stream | ISE | ||
| Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized bibtex | ||
| Stream | ISE state | (None) | |
| Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
| Document shepherd | No shepherd assigned | ||
| IESG | IESG state | RFC 4316 (Experimental) | |
| Action Holders |
(None)
|
||
| Telechat date | |||
| Responsible AD | Ted Hardie | ||
| Send notices to | (None) | ||
Network Working Group J. Reschke
Request for Comments: 4316 greenbytes
Category: Experimental December 2005
Datatypes for Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV)
Properties
Status of This Memo
This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet
community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.
Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested.
Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).
Abstract
This specification extends the Web Distributed Authoring and
Versioning Protocol (WebDAV) to support datatyping. Protocol
elements are defined to let clients and servers specify the datatype,
and to instruct the WebDAV method PROPFIND to return datatype
information.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................2
2. Notational Conventions ..........................................2
3. Overview ........................................................3
4. Changes for PROPPATCH Method ....................................4
4.1. Example of Successful PROPPATCH ............................4
4.2. Example of Failed PROPPATCH ................................5
4.3. Example of Successful PROPPATCH Where Type
Information Was Not Preserved ..............................6
5. Changes for PROPFIND Method .....................................7
5.1. Example of PROPFIND/prop ...................................7
6. Changes for Other Methods .......................................8
7. Compatibility Considerations ....................................8
8. Internationalization Considerations .............................9
9. Security Considerations .........................................9
10. Acknowledgements ...............................................9
11. References .....................................................9
11.1. Normative References ......................................9
11.2. Informative References ....................................9
Reschke Experimental [Page 1]
RFC 4316 Datatypes for WebDAV Properties December 2005
1. Introduction
This specification builds on the infrastructure provided by the Web
Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) Protocol, adding
support for data-typed properties.
Although servers must support XML content in property values, it may
be desirable to persist values as scalar values when possible and to
expose the data's type when the property value is returned to the
client. The client is free to ignore this information, but it may be
able to take advantage of it when modifying a property.
On the other hand, when setting new properties, it can be desirable
to pass datatype information along with the value. A server can take
advantage of this information to optimize storage and to perform
additional parsing (for instance, of dates). Servers that support
searching can also take advantage of known datatypes when doing
comparisons and sorting.
The following potential datatyping-related features were deliberately
considered out of scope:
o getting "schema" information for classes of resources (set of
"required" properties, their types, display information),
o definition of a set of mandatory property types,
o discovery of supported property types,
o extensions to PROPPATCH that would allow updates to parts of a
(structured) property.
2. Notational Conventions
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].
The term "property element" refers to the XML element that identifies
a particular property, for instance,
<getcontentlength xmlns="DAV:" />
The term "prop element" is used for the WebDAV "prop" element as
defined in Section 12.11 of [RFC2518].
The XML representation of schema components uses a vocabulary
identified by the namespace name "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema".
Reschke Experimental [Page 2]
RFC 4316 Datatypes for WebDAV Properties December 2005
For brevity, the text and examples in this specification use the
prefix "xs:" to stand for this namespace; in practice, any prefix can
be used. "XML Schema Part 1: Structures" ([XS1]) also defines
several attributes for direct use in any XML documents. These
attributes are in a different namespace named
"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance". For brevity, the text
and examples in this specification use the prefix "xsi:" to stand for
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