Re: [xml-dev] RESTful operations on document fragments

[Robert Koberg <rob@koberg.com>]

Fragment identifiers seem pretty limited. Does the modifiable node need
to have an ID attribute? Is it a complete replacement, a modification, a
deletion of a small part of the target? How would you (the server)
know? 

But, if you are working off the file system, you would need to
load/parse the entire file to find what you want to modify. 

It seems like XQuery and an XML DB would be the way to go.

http://www.w3.org/TR/xquery-update-10-requirements/

But I like working off the file system too. It is great for distributed
collaboration and version control. Perhaps some kind of combination of
SAX and XSL is a way to go. Run through the document using some kind of
XML writer until you find the target (sent as a request parameter that
is an XPath along with the type of modification). When you find it pipe
it, along with the update, into a transformation that does a merge.
Probably something like this exists?

best,
-Rob


On Sat, 2008-02-23 at 09:01 -0500, Simon St.Laurent wrote:
> Jim Ancona wrote:
> > There's an active blog discussion going on right now between (in 
> > alphabetical order) Subbu Allamaraju, Tim Bray, Roy Fielding, Joe 
> > Gregorio, Mark Nottingham. Dare Obasanjo, Aristotle Pagaltzis, Sam Ruby, 
> > Robert Sayre, James Snell, and probably some others I've left out, about 
> > using PATCH as a means to do RESTful partial updates. It's not exactly 
> > what you asked for, but maybe another way to solve the problem.
> > 
> > You might start here and see where the links take you:
> > http://www.snellspace.com/wp/?p=894
> 
> Wow.  I can barely look at the PATCH discussions without thinking "Wow, 
> what an incredibly nasty hack," but it's definitely something worth 
> thinking about.
> 
> Maybe it's just my priorities, but a URI format that lets you identify 
> parts of resources seems like a safer path to take than adding a new 
> HTTP method and then having to come up with various formats for doing 
> the patching.  (Not to mention upgrades to web servers.)
> 
> Yikes!
> 
> Maybe the 1997 XLink approach is worth further pursuit.  (And on 
> reflection, that's probably why I asked the question here - this list 
> has had related conversations in the past.)
> 
> Thanks,
> Simon
> 
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