I don't see a problem with just adding the diagnostic for those of us who
can use it.

In the meantime, I'm returning the SRW diagnostic with a code of 404 and an
addInfo of the database name part of the URL.

Ralph

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Sanderson [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 12:12 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: No such database diagnostic
>
>
> > The problem with returning the 404 is that there is no
> option for telling
> > them what went wrong.  In my case, I know that the database
> name part of the
> > URL didn't match anything I had and I'd like to tell them that.
>
> Out of band agreement/recommended best practice document?  As we don't
> talk about anything at a sub-database level, and requiring a server to
> -not- send 404 is not really our place (IMO)  As soon as I
> get time, I'm
> going to re-implement my server using mod_python rather than
> subclassing
> Python's (not very scalable) SimpleHTTPServer, at which point I
> (potentially) won't have any control over the rest of the
> server environment.
>
> Is there anything wrong with just supplying a custom 404
> message in HTML,
> or (better) XML with rendering stylesheet, that lists the available
> databases?
>
> My (tentative) approach would be to concatenate the Friends
> and Neighbours
> version of the ZeeRex files together:
>
> <databases>
>   <explain>
>     <serverInfo>
>       <host>...
>       <port>
>       <database>l5r</database>
>     </serverInfo>
>     <databaseInfo>
>       <title>Legend of the Five Rings Database</title>
>       <description>...
>     </databaseInfo>
>   </explain>
>   <explain>
>     ...
>   </explain>
>   ...
> </databases>
>
> Rob
>
> --
>       ,'/:.          Dr Robert Sanderson ([log in to unmask])
>     ,'-/::::.        http://www.o-r-g.org/~azaroth/
>   ,'--/::(@)::.      Special Collections and Archives, extension 3142
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> ____/:::::::::::::.
> I L L U M I N A T I
>