[DAS2] Content type for DAS XML responses

[Chervitz, Steve]

I just committed a new version of das2_get.html with this change:

RCS file: /home/repository/biodas/das/das2/das2_get.html,v
----------------------------
revision 1.2
date: 2004/12/21 02:43:42;  author: sac;  state: Exp;  lines: +50 -49
Converted mime types from application/x-das-foo to text/x-das-foo+xml for
XML types. For non-XML types omitting the '+xml' and adding an 'x-' suffix
to the right of the slash as needed.

Steve


> From: Allen Day <allenday at ucla.edu>
> Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 23:14:54 -0800
> To: Andrew Dalke <dalke at dalkescientific.com>
> Cc: <das2 at portal.open-bio.org>
> Subject: Re: [DAS2] Content type for DAS XML responses
> 
> sounds good, can we get a patch to the spec so i can make the necessary
> implementation changes and test against browsers?  thanks!
> 
> -allen 
> 
> 
> On Fri, 17 Dec 2004, Andrew Dalke wrote:
> 
>> Steve: 
>>> Currently, the DAS/2 spec dictates that responses should have
>>> content-types 
>>> like: 
>>> 
>>>   application/x-das-source
>>>   application/x-das-types
>>>   application/x-das-region
>>> 
>>> Changing these to be 'text/xml' would be more convenient since the
>>> content 
>>> would then be viewable in a standard web browser.
>> 
>> A browser should send something like
>> 
>> Accept: */* 
>>    or 
>> Accept: application/xml
>> 
>> or some other generic content type in its headers.  One solution
>> to at least consider is that IF a client does not request
>> application/x-das-whatever THEN return application/xml .  I do
>> not believe this is appropriate though.
>> 
>> 
>>>   text/xml; dasformat=source
>>>   text/xml; dasformat=types
>>>   text/xml; dasformat=region
>> 
>> I get confused; is it "text/xml" or "application/xml"?  Ah-ha!
>> RFC 3023 says (  http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3023.html )
>> 
>>     If an XML document -- that is, the unprocessed, source XML document
>>     -- is readable by casual users, text/xml is preferable to
>>     application/xml.  MIME user agents (and web user agents) that do not
>>     have explicit support for text/xml will treat it as text/plain, for
>>     example, by displaying the XML MIME entity as plain text.
>>     Application/xml is preferable when the XML MIME entity is unreadable
>>     by casual users.
>> 
>> That RFC is relevant to this discussion.  If I understand it
>> correctly it recommends using something more like
>> 
>>    text/x-das-source+xml
>> 
>> This would be understood by RFC 3023 compliant clients as
>> containing an XML document, by DAS clients to understand
>> which DAS XML format is used, and by generic clients to
>> contain an XML document.
>> 
>>> The corresponding compact content-types could be:
>>> 
>>>   text/plain; dasformat=compact-source
>>>   text/plain; dasformat=compact-types
>>>   text/plain; dasformat=compact-region
>> 
>> There should be no need for this.  A client should use
>> the catch-all text/* handler for text/x-compact-source
>> and show it as normal text.
>> 
>>> And other types could be:
>>> 
>>>   text/plain; dasformat=fasta
>>>   text/plain; dasformat=gff3
>>>   text/plain; dasformat=bed
>> 
>> Same for these.  What's the problem with
>>    text/x-fasta , etc.?
>> 
>> See also the discussion in appendix A.5 which describes
>> practical problems about using parameter in MIME types.
>> 
>>                                       Andrew
>>                                       dalke at dalkescientific.com
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> DAS2 mailing list
>> DAS2 at portal.open-bio.org
>> http://portal.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/das2
>> 
> _______________________________________________
> DAS2 mailing list
> DAS2 at portal.open-bio.org
> http://portal.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/das2