Network Working GroupA. Brown
Internet-DraftG. Clemm
Intended status: InformationalIBM
Expires: May 24, 2010J. Reschke, Editor
greenbytes
November 20, 2009

Link Relations for Simple Version Navigation

Abstract

This specification defines Atom link relations for navigation between a resource and its versions.

Status of this Memo

This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts.

Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as “work in progress”.

The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt.

The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.

This Internet-Draft will expire on May 24, 2010.

Copyright Notice

Copyright (c) 2009 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved.

This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the BSD License.

Editorial Note (To be removed by RFC Editor before publication)

Please send comments to the Atom Syntax mailing list (<http://www.imc.org/atom-syntax/>).


1. Introduction

This specification defines link relations that may be used on a resource that exists in a system that supports versioning to navigate among the different resources available, such as past versions.

2. Terminology

Versioned Resource

Version History

Predecessor, Successor

Working Copy

 I  iana   (type: change, status: closed)
julian.reschke@greenbytes.de2009-11-20 Use proper IANA registration template.
 I  

del-1. Link Relations

The following link relations are defined:

version-history

  • When included on a versioned resource, this link points to a resource containing the version history for this resource.

latest-version

  • When included on a versioned resource, this link points to a resource containing the latest (e.g., current) version.
  • The latest version is defined by the system. For linear versioning systems, this is probably the latest version by timestamp. For systems that support branching, there will be multiple latest versions, one for each branch in the version history.
  • Some systems may allow multiple of these link relations.

working-copy

  • When included on a versioned resource, this link points to a working copy for this resource.
  • Some systems may allow multiple of these link relations.

predecessor-version

  • When included on a versioned resource, this link points to a resource containing the predecessor version in the version history.
  • Some systems may allow multiple of these link relations in the case of a multiple branches merging.

successor-version

  • When included on a versioned resource, this link points to a resource containing the successor version in the version history.
  • Some systems may allow multiple of these link relations in order to support branching.

3. Link Relations

The following link relations are defined:

3.1. version-history

When included on a versioned resource, this link points to a resource containing the version history for this resource.

3.2. latest-version

When included on a versioned resource, this link points to a resource containing the latest (e.g., current) version.

The latest version is defined by the system. For linear versioning systems, this is probably the latest version by timestamp. For systems that support branching, there will be multiple latest versions, one for each branch in the version history.

Some systems may allow multiple of these link relations.

3.3. working-copy

When included on a versioned resource, this link points to a working copy for this resource.

Some systems may allow multiple of these link relations.

3.4. predecessor-version

When included on a versioned resource, this link points to a resource containing the predecessor version in the version history.

Some systems may allow multiple of these link relations in the case of a multiple branches merging.

3.5. successor-version

When included on a versioned resource, this link points to a resource containing the successor version in the version history.

Some systems may allow multiple of these link relations in order to support branching.

 I  

4. IANA Considerations

The link relations below are to be registered by IANA per Section 7.1 of [RFC4287]:

5. Security Considerations

Automated agents should take care when these relation crosses administrative domains (e.g., the URI has a different authority than the current document). I Such agents should also take care to detect circular references.

 I  

del-2. IANA Considerations

The link relations defined in SectionSection del-13 are to be registered by IANA per [RFC4287]. [lhdraft: Will be updated to follow [draft-nottingham-http-link-header] once approved by the IESG. --jre]

All link relations defined in this document will have the following expected display characteristics:

  • Undefined; this relation can be used for background processing or to provide extended functionality without displaying its value.

6. References

6.1. Normative References

[RFC4287]
Nottingham, M. and R. Sayre, “The Atom Syndication Format”, RFC 4287, December 2005.

6.2. Informative References

Nottingham, M., “Web Linking”, Internet-Draft draft-nottingham-http-link-header-06 (work in progress), July 2009.
[JSR-283]
Day Software, Nuescheler, D., and P. Piegaze, “Content Repository API for Java™ Technology Specification”, Java Specification Request 283, August 2009, <http://www.day.com/specs/jcr/2.0/>.
[RFC3253]
Clemm, G., Amsden, J., Ellison, T., Kaler, C., and J. Whitehead, “Versioning Extensions to WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning)”, RFC 3253, March 2002.

Appendix A. Relationship to Java Content Repository (JCR) and WebDAV

The link relations defined in SectionSection del-13 correspond to various properties used in WebDAV Versioning [RFC3253] and JCR [JSR-283]:

version-history

latest-version

working-resource

predecessor-version

successor-version

Appendix B. Contributors

The content and concepts within are a product of the Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) Technical Committee (TC) at OASIS.

All members of the TC have contributed.

Appendix C. Change Log (to be removed by RFC Editor before publication)

 I  

Authors' Addresses

Al Brown
IBM
3565 Harbor Blvd
Costa Mesa, California 92626
US
EMail: albertcbrown@us.ibm.com
Geoffrey Clemm
IBM
20 Maguire Road
Lexington, MA 02421
US
EMail: geoffrey.clemm@us.ibm.com
Julian F. Reschke (editor)
greenbytes GmbH
Hafenweg 16
Muenster, NW 48155
Germany
EMail: julian.reschke@greenbytes.de
URI: http://greenbytes.de/tech/webdav/