WebDAV: Agenda

1
WebDAV Agenda

• Find someone to record minutes
• Open issues in the ACL specification
• Reviving DASL
• Improved status reporting (Dusseault)
• Moving RFC 2518 to Draft status
• Process for moving forward
• Discussion of issues list items

2
Open Issues in ACL Specification

• Null resources and ACLs
• Does a null resource, and a lock null resource
  have an ACL?
• Is it possible to use ldap scheme URLs for
  principal identifiers?
• Either ldap-URL property, or not allowed
• ACL properties returned by a PROPFIND allprop
• None, some, all? MAY/SHOULD/MUST?
• View on list MUST NOT return any ACL properties
  on PROPFIND allprop (room agrees)

3
ACLs

• What URIs schemes should be allowed for
  identifying principals?
• Limited set http(s), ldap(s)
• http(s) defined in ACL spec. others must be
  explicitly defined by an additional specification
• Or, a URL that identifies a WebDAV principal
  resource
• Anything (no constraints)
• ? closest to sense ot the room Anything, but
  servers SHOULD use http(s), which is a privileged
  scheme that points to resources that SHOULD have
  additional properties

4
ACLs (2)

• Should principal resources have an optional
  property alternateURL that can point off to,
  e.g., an LDAP accessible network resource?
• Sense of the room is, yes.
• Need to provide information in the specification
  on how, exactly, a client might make use of this
  feature to provide a richer user experience.
• Document likely URL schemes (ldap, mailto) that
  may appear in here.

5
ACLs (2.5)

• Provisionally (subject to list discussion), can
  eliminate the authentication-id property. The
  AlternateURL property can cover many of the use
  cases envisioned for authentication-id.
• Or, make sure that the use of each principal
  property (Displayname, authentication-id, etc.)
  is known, agreed to, and considered important
  enough to justify the property.

6
ACL (3)

• Isprincipal property
• Use case clients can use this property to decide
  how to display the resource in a UI (I.e., choice
  of icon for the principal resource)
• Sense of the room (with some objection) Leave as
  isprincipal property
• Put type info into resourcetype property
• Get rid of this altogether
• Not super strong sentiment either way.
• Also need to add info to RFC 2518 for what to put
  into resourcetype when adding interfaces/new
  typed objects record interfaces in resourcetype

7
ACL (4)

• Add a note that certain methods (GET, PUT, etc.)
  are intentionally left undefined on principal
  resources

8
PROPFIND allprop

• Should PROPFIND allprop be the default behavior
  of PROPFIND
• Sense of the room move away from this
• Should PROPFIND allprop be eliminated
  alltogether?
• Deprecate this behavior, then hopefully eliminate
  this when going to Standard
• Long-term process (10 years)
• In RFC 2518 revision, need to document the
  reasons for why this is being deprecated
  (significant performance issues)
• Only return dead properties, not live ones.

9
Reviving DASL

• DASL specification has been dormant for some time
• As Chair, I would like feedback on
• Who is interested in seeing this specification
  completed?
• A few hands
• When (relative to other WebDAV and DeltaV
  activities) this specification should be
  completed?
• Look at synergy/interactions between DASL and
  XML-Query give XML-Query info that DASL exists,
  should be part of their design space.
• Sentiment that, since it is the same group of
  people working on DAV/DeltaV specifications, DASL
  should remain dormant
• Who is willing to work on this specification?
• Move existing DASL specification to
  Informational/Experimental add note that Xythos
  has implemented?
• Sense of the room

10
Moving RFC 2518 to Draft

• Four-part process
• Resolve Issues List items on mailing list
• Goal handle 2 a week
• Document solutions with pros/cons
• Hold face-to-face interoperability bake-off
• Flush out new issues
• Develop test plan document on mailing list
• Aim for late May/June

11
Moving RFC 2518 to Draft

• Process (contd)
• Develop an online form to gather initial
  implementation and testing data
• Used successfully for HTTP/1.1
• Create a farm of significant server
  implementations for ongoing interop testing
• I can host and administer machines at UC Santa
  Cruz (on the open Internet), but I cannot afford
  the machines/software
• Donations needed