Re: Version identifier in URL

Kenji Takahashi (kt@nttlabs.com)
Thu, 30 May 1996 18:49:11 -0700


>           The use of links, it appears, is an attempt to implement a
>versioning system _in HTML_.  Before I slight this approach, maybe Dan
>could explain how those links get there: humans type them in? created
>by web authoring tools? automatically inserted by an external versioning
>system on document retrieval?

This may be answered by Dan.  But please let me explain our approach and
implementation (http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/OOP/9606_Workshop/submission/
accept/42.html).  As he mentioned, link information is described in HTTP
headers, but not HTML bodies.  Most of current servers dynamically generate
HTTP headers and do not store "meta" information in HTTP headers, such as
(typed) LINK information.  We have implemented a server that can handel
LINK information and stores it as a part of HTTP headers, and a client
that talk to this server.  We use these LINKs to relate previous/next
versions.  Typed LINK information is useful in a wide area of applications,
besides version and configuration management.  For example, if entities
are related with parent-child LINKs, you can infer a grand-grand-children
of a specific entities using several HEAD methods without analyzing bodies
of each entity.

Best regards,

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