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Re: Gen-ART review of draft-ietf-vcarddav-webdav-mkcol-05

2009-08-18 09:41:56
Hi Spencer,
Thanks for your review - I was on vacation last week so I am only getting around to replying now.

--On August 7, 2009 6:36:41 AM -0500 Spencer Dawkins <spencer(_at_)wonderhamster(_dot_)org> wrote:

Comments identified as "Spencer (clarity)" are provided for editors, but
are not part of the Gen-ART review.

Abstract

   This specification extends the Web Distributed Authoring and
   Versioning (WebDAV) MKCOL method to allow collections of arbitrary
   resourcetype to be created and to allow properties to be set at the
   same time.

Spencer (clarity): I know that RFC 4918 didn't provide an expansion for
MKCOL until about page 46 (or maybe 25, in passing), but since MKCOL
appears in the abstract for this document, it might be helpful to
s/MKCOL/MKCOL ("Make Collection")/ here. MKCOL is defined at first use in
the Introduction, so that's fine - this is only a suggestion about the
abstract.

Sure - seems reasonable. Change done in my working copy.

3.  WebDAV extended MKCOL

   The WebDAV MKCOL request is extended to allow the inclusion of a
   request body.  The request body is an XML document containing a
   single DAV:mkcol XML element as the root element.  The Content-Type

Spencer (minor): if I'm reading this paragraph correctly, I'd suggest
"The request body is an XML document that MUST contain a single DAV:mkcol
XML element as the root element" here - the last sentence in this
paragraph makes me think the requirement is normative, but it doesn't
look normative to 2119 scanners :-)

As per comments from Julian I won't make this change.

   request header MUST be set appropriately for an XML body (e.g., set
   to "text/xml" or "application/xml").  XML-typed bodies for an MKCOL
   request that do not have DAV:mkcol as the root element are reserved
   for future usage.

   As per the PROPPATCH method ([RFC4918], Section 9.2), servers MUST
   process any DAV:set instructions in document order (an exception to
   the normal rule that ordering is irrelevant).  Instructions MUST
   either all be executed or none executed.  Thus, if any error occurs

Spencer (clarity): this sentence reads roughly to me, and it's 2119
language, so needs to be clear. I suggest "The set of instructions MUST
be executed atomically; either all are executed or none are executed".

The text here is an exact copy of that in 4918. Strictly speaking all instructions are executed, it is just that some succeed and some fail. Perhaps better text is:

"If any one instruction fails to execute successfully, then all instructions MUST fail (i.e., either all succeed or all fail)".

   during processing, all executed instructions MUST be undone and a
   proper error result returned.  Failure to set a property value on the
   collection MUST result in a failure of the overall MKCOL request -
   i.e. the collection is not created.

3.5.  Example: Successful Extended MKCOL Request

Spencer (minor): Perhaps this should be s/Successful/Unsuccessful/? It's
returning a 403/424 :D

Fixed.

4.  Replacing Existing MKxxx Methods

Spencer (clarity): Hmm. This section (and 4.1, and 4.1.1) aren't quite
about REPLACING existing MKxxx methods, but more like "Providing MKxxx
functionality using extended MKCOL". Would that be clearer? The current
text in 4.1 sent me looking to see whether "replacement" meant
"deprecation" (it doesn't, if I'm reading clearly), for example.

Well ultimately I would like to see MKCALENDAR deprecated in favor of extended MKCOL - however, given the ever growing deployments of CalDAV that is probably not going to happen any time soon.

So, I have changed the title to:

"Using Extended MKCOL as an Alternative to MKxxx Methods"

and changed "replace" to "alternative for" in a couple of places.


--
Cyrus Daboo

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