I can live with this, although I do not see what has been gained with
respect to what we had in version 1.0. What should happen when "unknown"
parameters are not prefixed wit x- ?
The solution we had in version 1.0 was perfect in different aspects. It
served debugging without users being bothered by error messages. It
served a nice way to go to a new version without being backwards
incompatible: when we introduce in version 1.2 a new parameter, version
1.1 servers just echo it as unknown parameter. The effect of having the
x- prefix seems to be that the server knows it is meant to be echoed.
But not having to be aware of the x- prefix lowers the barrier for
implementation: when an implementor makes a mistake in version 1.0 he
sees immediately that he used a wrong parameter.
I would rather expect the x- prefix as a sign to not-echo-the-parameter
because it is considered a non-standard local parameter.
The echoing being mandatory is another thing. Clients will be
appreciated more when they can deal with al kinds of server behaviour.
Servers will be appreciated when they offer a better basis for all kinds
of functionality. Even when we say that servers MUST echo these
parameters cllients should be capable of dealing with servers that do
not echo. But this will always result in less functionality (otherwise
it was meaningless to use the extra parameters).
But once again, I can live with this solution, but I was happier with
the 1.0 solution.
Theo
>>> [log in to unmask] 10/11 5:58 >>>
OK, just to have something to hit against, I'll propose the following
solution and let you all shoot it down...
We have a new schema http://www.loc.gov/srw/echoedParameters which
looks
like the following
<x:echo xmlns:x="http://www.loc.gov/srw/echoedParameters">
<parameter>
<parameterName>...</parameterName>
<parameterValue>...</parameterValue>
</parameter>
<parameter>
<parameterName>...</parameterName>
<parameterValue>...</parameterValue>
</parameter>
</x:echo>
In SRW
This schema can be used in the extraRequestData, if so the server MUST
return the structure as is in the extraResponseData
In SRU
The SRU URL can contain parameters of the form x-..., the server MUST
return these in an x:echo structure in the extraResponseData e.g.
http://myserver.com/sru?version=1.1&operation=search&query=smith&x-parm1
=something&x-parm2=somethingelse
<x:echo xmlns:x="http://www.loc.gov/srw/echoedParameters">
<parameter>
<parameterName>x-parm1</parameterName>
<parameterValue>something</parameterValue>
</parameter>
<parameter>
<parameterName>x-parm2</parameterName>
<parameterValue>somethingelse</parameterValue>
</parameter>
</x:echo>
Theo - are you happy with that?
Mike, Rob and Ralph, note that in this proposal x-... parameters in
SRU
MUST be echoed back in extraResponseData not ignored as you've
suggested.
Matthew
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