On Wed, May 30, 2007 at 02:01:50AM -0400, Larry Stone wrote: > How about the word "resource" to introduce the URI, since it is, after > all, a reference to a resource -- the "R" in URI. It'd be: > > <prefix>/resource/<encoded-URI> e.g. > > http://dspace.me.ac.uk/resource/hdl/1234/56 > > This follows the proposal to encode the URI by tearing off the scheme > and putting it in a separate pathname element to avoid issues over > quoting the ":". Note that I propose using the actual scheme label > in the URL rather than a user-friendly label, e.g. "hdl" rather than > "handle".
This sounds like some reasonable middle-ground. The only issue I can see here is that this mechanism only allows us to refer to objects that have persistent identifiers. Of course, we could still use an "internal" form of identifier for objects without actual persistent identifiers, but then if we have an internal format, should we not use that everywhere? Aside from consistency, Mark made the observation that including the persistent identifier in the URL is, to a certain extent, bogus. Perhaps we could just provide the ability to resolve URLs of the above form, but for making links, etc, we use an internal identifier format. > Re special characters and quoting: I agree with James' original point that > the HTTP URL spec has quoting rules for just this reason, but from a > practical point of view, the client and server implementations have a lot > of bugs in this area. That's what I discovered implementing WebDAV for > the LNI: it wasn't worth trying to encode a slash (/) in a URL, e.g. > within a Handle, because it would just get stomped on differently by > the different clients. Better to let it get used literally as a > path element separator and make the servlet clever enough to figure it out. > Also, construct the servlet's URL so the whole path after a certain > point is part of the object URI, e.g. the Handle. Again, this sounds fine. The only reason this doesn't work with the current implementation with Handles is for referencing bitstreams -- we are forced to make assumptions about the structure of the persistent identifiers because we use the (arbitrary and unpredictable) filename as part of the URL. This must be avoided, whichever scheme we eventually use. cheers, Jim -- James Rutherford | Hewlett-Packard Limited registered Office: Research Engineer | Cain Road, HP Labs | Bracknell, Bristol, UK | Berks +44 117 312 7066 | RG12 1HN. [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Registered No: 690597 England The contents of this message and any attachments to it are confidential and may be legally privileged. If you have received this message in error, you should delete it from your system immediately and advise the sender. To any recipient of this message within HP, unless otherwise stated you should consider this message and attachments as "HP CONFIDENTIAL". ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ _______________________________________________ DSpace-tech mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-tech
