[DAS2] Content type for DAS XML responses

[Allen Day]

changes made to das2 codebase, thanks.

On Mon, 20 Dec 2004, Chervitz, Steve wrote:

> 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
> >> 
> > _______________________________________________
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> > DAS2 at portal.open-bio.org
> > http://portal.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/das2 
>