> Ofcourse we need diagnostics to let the server say "I cannot do this"
> but I would like the server to return something useful in addition to
> this diagnostic. The xPath is a nice example.
> Suppose I prefer title, author date as response and I want to broadcast
> a query to several targets. I do not know what schemas they have
> available. I would like to say to the servers "give my title, author and
Then you should look at their Zeerex files.
> date (by means of xPath) but if you cannot do that give me your captions
> (default) and I will try to make something out of it". I assume that a
> caption will not be 25 Mb there is no guarentee.
How do you request a 'caption' (whatever that is?)
> The only thing we have to agree upon is that in this case the server
> returns something useful in addition to the errormessage e.g. a short
> DC(X)caption.
If I get a request for and EAD record in Dublin Core, it's still not going
to be very short and your display script that expects just
title/author/date (or whatever) won't work, or will need to be very
lenient in what it accepts ... more work for the client as well as the
server.
That would mean you would need to check the diagnostics for /every/
transaction to see if it was just giving you fudged results, rather than
checking them only if you need to to find out why you got no results at
all.
It's like going into a hardware store and asking specifically for number 5
nails, paying for them (in some business models), and then being given
number 6 nails with a sticker somewhere saying 'Sorry, don't do number 5,
but these are close'.
Rob
--
,'/:. Dr Robert Sanderson ([log in to unmask])
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