Subject: RE: Comments on the "new" 2518--Display Name

From: "Kevin Wiggen" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2006 15:06:44 -0800

Not sure you understood my question.  I would like readers of the spec
to understand the difference between a URL and Display Name and
understand how that operates in the real world (MS Webfolders, Apple
OSX, Xythos).  Webdav clients that make Webdav server look like file
systems should expect the URL to be used in displays to users and NOT
display name.  As client developers we often get into conflict on this
point.  We of course can add a column in windows explorer to SHOW the
display name, but the URL is the correct item to show users in this
generic Webdav client.

-----Original Message-----
From: Julian Reschke [mailto:[email-masked]] 
Sent: Thursday, March 02, 2006 2:42 PM
To: Kevin Wiggen
Cc: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: Comments on the "new" 2518--Display Name

Kevin Wiggen wrote:
> 
> Ok let me make sure I understand both Julian and Geoff correctly.
> 
> Assume I am the architect of Microsoft Web Folders (a Webdav client).
I
> am using Webdav to represent a file system to the user and want people
> to use windows explorer like functionality to be able to
> move/copy/delete/put/rename/etc files on a web server.  
> 
> When my client does a Propfind to the server to request information to
> show to the user, I MUST use the last segment of the URL in my display
> to show the name of the resource.  It is possible for me to show
display
> name somewhere else (in a details screen or in a column next to last
> update date), but the name of the resource shown to the user should be
> from the URL.
> 
> Thus if my client attempts to view one of Geoff's repositories where
> "those which have large flat collections, where the resources in the
> collection have obscure last segments, such as UUIDs," we will be
> showing UUID in the interface and display name somewhere else.
> 
> I think there is confusion over what is expected and possible by file
> system like Webdav clients (which I would argue are the most used
Webdav
> clients in the world as MS and Apple have them native) and some
clarity
> in the spec around the use of display name would be nice.
> 
> Kevin

Kevin,

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking for. DAV:displayname never had 
any guarantee to be unique within a collection, many servers are 
implemented that way, and no generic client I'm aware of gets this wrong

(in the latest version).

Best regards, Julian

---

From: Julian Reschke <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 03 Mar 2006 15:05:35 +0100

> display name, but the URL is the correct item to show users in this

Well, I wanted to make sure that what you're after is a clarification of 
  how WebDAV has been working all the time, not something we changed in 
RFC2518bis.

So yes, I agree that it would be useful to state that the 
DAV:displayname property is not a replacement for the URL, that even in 
presence of nice DAV:displayname there are still good reason to assign 
meaningful URLs, and that clients can not assume that displaynames will 
be unique for the members of a collection.

Do you want to propose specific text?

Best regards, Julian