---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Richard Jones <rich...@oneoverzero.com>
Date: 19 January 2011 21:45
Subject: Re: Key Changes and Justifications
To: Ian Stuart <ian.stu...@ed.ac.uk>
Cc: techadvisorypa...@swordapp.org


Hi Ian,

> - Simplification of acceptPackaging: surely the list of what's not
> accepted is (in essence) infinite? The list of package types (even if
> they are defined by some Internet Taskforce) will grow over time.
> This NEEDS to be a "list of things I understand" - be they "I can give
> you in one of these formats" or "I can receive in one of these
> formats"... preferably each with a 'q'-weighting

The reason for the comment about not accepting formats was because the
q value can be used to list formats the server will NOT accept, by
setting q=0.0.  This was the only thing that I could think that would
cause any problems with removing the q value from acceptPackaging.  Is
anyone aware of anyone using SWORD who cares about the q values?

I agree with you, Ian, that this should be a list of "things that I
understand", but the q value muddies this water a little by allowing
it to also be a list containing "things I definitely don't
understand".

> - Recording Depositors and OnBehalfOf users: Could a client (well, a
> server) set a depositor or an OnBehalfOf value?
> Thought example: The Open Access Repository Junction Deposit Broker
> passes an item to repository "Foo". In that deposit is a statement
> defining that the item has come from Publisher "Bah". "Foo" accepts that
> deposit, however it has internally elected to have [virtual]
> Deposit-users to represent each of the publishers, therefore it sets the
> OnBehalfOf record to show it has been assigned to the depositor "Bah".
> Whether the Open Access Repository Junction Deposit Broker uses this
> information is moot - it is valid for "Foo" to state that it has defined
> the deposit as being OnBehalfOf "Bah"

Well, that's an interesting question.  Obviously, the server is at
liberty to do whatever it wants with the data when it's got hold of
it, so something like you describe could happen.  I think that this
would be an implementation decision, though, rather than one for us to
address during the spec.

> - MD5 vs SHA1: I don't understand the context in full... as I understand
> it, Content-MD5 is a checksum for the content.
> Is there a significant issue in this checksum being spoofed?
> Ignoring the fact that the development for SWORD2 is coming from the
> Open Access Movement, is there a requirement for transfers to have a
> checksum that is "more secure" that any other?
> For 90-plus percent of situations, the difference between MD5 & SHA-1 is
> moot.
> The only issue that needs to be considered is "Backward Compatibility" -
> if we switch the checksum algorithm, then it will be more complex for
> systems to understand both SWORDv1 & SWORDv2 connections.

Agreed; thanks.

> - Extracting Metadata from an Atom Entry: there are two thoughts here -
> 1) Why complicate the extraction process by having metadata in both me
> message carrier AND the payload?

I don't think this is what's suggested.  The metadata is all in the
Atom part, and presumed not to be in the payload when the default
package format is specified.

> 2) How does the system deal with multiple authors?
> This seems to be a solution to a fairly specific problem, and one that
> is designed to make life easy for that problem, at the expense of the
> larger whole.

I'm not sure I understand.  The metadata in the atom entry is no
different than if the metadata were in the attached zip.  This is
simply our "default" package format, so that we don't have to have a
long argument about which is SWORD's officially supported format.
Instead we just take advantage of the standard that we are already
employing.

> - Content-Location header: Again, I'm not sure I fully understand this
> issue.
> "Location" is where the whole deposit can be found on the InterWeb (the
> abstract page, if you like.... <server>/<collection>/<deposit>)
> Is "Content-Location" a reference to recover the content... such as a
> script to extract the item (the Edit URI, I guess)

The atom spec I find a little confusing on the matter, hence the
question and suggestion to continue to omit it :)  I believe the
answer is to continue to omit it!

Cheers,

Richard

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Special Offer-- Download ArcSight Logger for FREE (a $49 USD value)!
Finally, a world-class log management solution at an even better price-free!
Download using promo code Free_Logger_4_Dev2Dev. Offer expires 
February 28th, so secure your free ArcSight Logger TODAY! 
http://p.sf.net/sfu/arcsight-sfd2d
_______________________________________________
Sword-app-techadvisorypanel mailing list
Sword-app-techadvisorypanel@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/sword-app-techadvisorypanel

Reply via email to