Re: Version identifier in URL

Kenji Takahashi (kt@nttlabs.com)
Tue, 28 May 1996 19:31:45 -0700 

>From these examples, you can see that there is a basic similarity to all
>approaches.

Actually we do not use the similar approach.  We use "Content-version" field
in HTTP header to specify a version of an entity.  Our server and client
use a GET method that includes the "Content-version" header.  I believe that
the earlier version of the HTTP draft intend to handle versions in this way and
our approach is generally consistent with current "Content-negotiation"
approach...

The nameing scheme, "entity+;something", seems to be difficult to handle
within file system.  For example, consider a file named "xxx;yyy" in Unix
file system...

This is somehow specific to our implementation, but our naming scheme
is as follows.  We use directory name as a "representative" URL of an
entity.  Under the directory, versioned entities exist.  For example,
"http://host/proj/file.html " is a representative URL,
        "http://host/proj/file.html/1" for the version 1
        "http://host/proj/file.html/2" for the version 2
        "http://host/proj/file.html/2" for the version 3
        and so on.

The client get the specific version with GET representative URL + content
version header field, or GET "representative URL"/n.  The latest version
can be gotten and PUT with the representative URL.

Best regards,

Kenji
--
Kenji Takahashi                   | e-mail: kt@nttlabs.com
NTT Software Laboratories         | http://www.nttlabs.com/people/kt/
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