Subject: DAV:resource-id and overwriting COPY with different resource types

From: "Tim Olsen" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 17:10:37 -0400

The DeltaV RFC clarifies that the preexisting destination resource of
an overwriting COPY "MUST NOT be deleted, but MUST be updated to have
the content and dead properties of [the source]" (Sec 1.7).

Likewise, the latest BIND draft specifies that a "COPY that updates an
existing resource must not change the value of its DAV:resource-id
property" (Sec 2.7).

The DeltaV RFC stipulates, however, that one is only required to avoid
deleting the desitination resource if it "has the same resource type
as the corresponding resource at the request-URL" (Sec 1.7).  It does
not appear that the BIND draft makes any similar statement.

My question is, if I want to overwrite one type of resource (say a
collection) with another (say a regular resource representing a file),
does the resource-id of the destination have to stay the same?

thanks,
Tim

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From: Julian Reschke <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 12:07:13 +0200

> does the resource-id of the destination have to stay the same?

I would say that depends on your implementation. If you have a way to 
turn an existing collection into a file (which I think would be an 
exotic feature...), then the resource-id indeed should stay the same. On 
the other hand, if your server internally deletes the collection and 
creates a new resource in place, assigning a new resource-id is the 
right thing to do.

The import point being here that none of the specs requires you to keep 
the resource-in in this case.

Best regards, Julian