One document matched: draft-ietf-webdav-redirectref-protocol-00.txt


WEBDAV Working Group                                     J. Slein, Xerox
INTERNET DRAFT                             E.J. Whitehead Jr., UC Irvine
<draft-ietf-webdav-redirectref-protocol-00.txt>      J. Davis, CourseNet
                                                      G. Clemm, Rational
                                                         C. Fay, FileNet
                                                        J. Crawford, IBM
                                                 T. Chihaya, DataChannel
                                                         August 20, 1999
Expires February 20, 2000

			WebDAV Redirect Reference Resources

Status of this Memo

This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with all 
provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026. 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
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Distribution of this document is unlimited. Please send comments to the 
Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) working group at <w3c-
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Discussions of the WEBDAV working group are archived at URL: 
<http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-dist-auth/>.

Abstract

The WebDAV Distributed Authoring Protocol provides basic support for 
collections, offering the ability to create and list unordered 
collections.

This specification is one of a group of three specifications that 
supplement the WebDAV Distributed Authoring Protocol to increase the 
power of WebDAV collections. This specification defines redirect 
reference resources, one mechanism for allowing a single resource to 
appear in more than one collection.  A redirect reference resource is a 
resource in one collection that responds to most requests by redirecting 
the request (using an HTTP 1.1 302 Moved Temporarily response) to a 
different resource, possibly in a different collection.  [B] defines 
bindings, another approach to allowing a single resource to be accessed 
from multiple collections.  [OC] provides ordered collections.

Table of Contents

1	Notational Conventions.......................................3
2	Introduction.................................................3

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3	Terminology..................................................4
4	Overview of Redirect Reference Resources.....................5
5	MKREF Method.................................................5
5.1	Overview of MKREF............................................5
5.2	Status Codes.................................................6
5.3	Example: MKREF...............................................6
6	Listing the Redirect Reference Resources in a Collection.....6
6.1	Example: PROPFIND on a Collection with Redirect Reference 
        Resources....................................................7
6.2	Example: PROPFIND with Passthrough: F on a Collection with 
        Redirect Reference Resources.................................9
7	Copying Redirect Reference Resources........................10
7.1	Example: COPY on a Redirect Reference Resource..............11
7.2	Example: COPY on a Collection That Contains a Redirect 
        Reference Resource..........................................11
8	Deleting and Moving Redirect Reference Resources............12
9	Locking Redirect Reference Resources........................12
9.1	Example: LOCK on a Redirect Reference Resource..............14
9.2	Example: LOCK on a Collection That Contains a Redirect 
        Reference Resource, with Passthrough: T.....................15
10	Other Operations on Redirect Reference Resources............16
10.1	Example: GET on a Redirect Reference Resource...............17
10.2	Example: PUT on a Redirect Reference Resource with
        "Passthrough: F"............................................18
10.3	Example: PROPPATCH on a Redirect Reference Resource.........18
11	Operations on Targets of Redirect Reference Resources.......19
12	Relative URIs in Ref-Target and DAV:reftarget...............19
12.1	Example: Resolving a Relative URI in Ref-Target.............19
12.2	Example: Resolving a Relative URI in DAV:reftarget..........20
13	Redirect References to Collections..........................21
14	Headers.....................................................21
14.1	Ref-Target Entity Header....................................21
14.2	Resource-Type Entity Header.................................22
14.3	Passthrough Request Header..................................22
15	Properties..................................................22
15.1	reftarget Property..........................................22
15.2	location Pseudo-Property....................................23
16	XML Elements................................................23
16.1	redirectref XML Element.....................................23
17	Extensions to the DAV:response XML Element for Multi-Status 
        Responses...................................................23
18	Capability Discovery........................................23
18.1	Example: Discovery of Support for Redirect Reference 
        Resources...................................................24
19	Security Considerations.....................................24
19.1	Privacy Concerns............................................24
19.2	Redirect Loops..............................................25
19.3	Redirect Reference Resources and Denial of Service..........25
19.4	Private Locations May Be Revealed...........................25
20	Internationalization Considerations.........................25
21	IANA Considerations.........................................26
22	Copyright...................................................26
23	Intellectual Property.......................................26
24	Acknowledgements............................................26
25	References..................................................26

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26	Authors' Addresses..........................................27
27	Appendices..................................................28
27.1	Appendix 1: Extensions to the WebDAV Document Type 
        Definition..................................................28

1 Notational Conventions

Since this document describes a set of extensions to the HTTP/1.1 
protocol, the augmented BNF used here to describe protocol elements is 
exactly the same as described in Section 2.1 of [HTTP].  Since this 
augmented BNF uses the basic production rules provided in Section 2.2 of 
[HTTP], these rules apply to this document as well.

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", 
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this 
document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

2 Introduction

The simple collections that the WebDAV Distributed Authoring Protocol 
specification supports are powerful enough to be widely useful.  They 
provide for the hierarchical organization of resources, with mechanisms 
for creating and deleting collections, copying and moving them, locking 
them, adding members to them and removing members from them, and getting 
listings of their members.  Delete, copy, move, list, and lock 
operations can be applied recursively, so that a client can operate on 
whole hierarchies with a single request.

This specification is one of a family of three specifications that build 
on the infrastructure defined in [HTTP] and [WebDAV] to extend the 
capabilities of collections.  The companion specification [OC] defines 
protocol extensions to support ordered collections.  The present 
specification and the companion specification [B] define mechanisms for 
allowing the same resource to appear in multiple collections.  This 
capability is useful for several reasons: 

Organizing resources into hierarchies places them into smaller 
groupings, known as collections, which are more easily browsed and 
manipulated than a flat namespace.  However, hierarchies require 
categorization decisions that locate resources at a single location in 
the hierarchy, a drawback when a resource has multiple valid categories. 
For example, in a hierarchy of vehicle descriptions containing 
collections for cars and boats, a description of a combination car/boat 
vehicle could belong in either collection. Ideally, the description 
should be accessible from both.

Hierarchies also make resource sharing more difficult, since resources 
that have utility across many collections are still forced into a single 
collection. For example, the mathematics department at one university 
might create a collection of information on fractals that contains 
bindings to some local resources, but also provides access to some 
resources at other universities.  For many reasons, it may be 
undesirable to make physical copies of the shared resources on the local 
server - to conserve disk space, to respect copyright constraints, or to 
make any changes in the shared resources visible automatically.  

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The BIND method defined in [B] provides one mechanism for allowing a 
single resource to appear in multiple collections.  It lets clients 
associate a new URI with an existing resource.  This URI can then be 
used to submit requests to the resource.  Since URIs in WebDAV are 
hierarchical, and correspond to a hierarchy of collections in resource 
space, the BIND method also has the effect of adding the resource to a 
collection.  As new URIs are associated with the resource, it appears in 
additional collections.

The redirect reference resources defined here are a different mechanism 
for allowing a single resource to appear in multiple collections.  A 
redirect reference resource is a resource in one collection whose 
purpose is to forward requests to another resource (its target), usually 
in a different collection.  In this way, it allows clients to submit 
requests to the target resource from another collection.  It redirects 
most requests to the target resource using the HTTP 302 (Moved 
Temporarily) status code, thereby providing a form of mediated access to 
the target resource.

These two approaches to allowing clients to add a single resource to 
multiple collections have very different characteristics:

A redirect reference is a resource, and so can have properties of its 
own.  Such information as who created the reference, when, and why can 
be stored on the redirect reference resource.  Since redirect references 
are implemented using HTTP 302 responses, it generally takes two round 
trips to submit a request to the intended resource.  Servers are not 
required to enforce the integrity of redirect references.  Redirect 
references work equally well for local resources and for resources that 
reside on a different server from the reference.

By contrast, a BIND request does not create a new resource, but simply 
makes available a new URI for submitting requests to an existing 
resource.  The new URI can be used like any other URI to submit a 
request to a resource.  Only one round trip is needed to submit a 
request to the intended target.  Servers are required to enforce the 
integrity of the relationships between the new URIs clients create and 
the resources associated with them.  Consequently, it is unlikely that 
servers will support BIND requests that cross server boundaries.

3 Terminology

The terminology used here follows and extends that in the WebDAV 
Distributed Authoring Protocol specification [WebDAV]. Definitions of 
the terms resource, Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), and Uniform 
Resource Locator (URL) are provided in [URI].

Reference Resource
     A resource whose purpose is to forward requests to another 
     resource.  Reference resources are an alternative mechanism to 
     bindings (defined in [B]) for allowing clients to create multiple 
     URIs that can be used to submit requests to the same resource.

Redirect Reference Resource

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     A resource that forwards requests to another resource using the 
     HTTP 1.1 302 (Moved Temporarily) response mechanism.  The client 
     is aware that this type of reference resource is mediating between 
     it and the target resource.

Non-Reference Resource
     A resource that is not a reference to another resource.

Target Resource
     The resource to which requests are forwarded by a reference 
     resource.

4 Overview of Redirect Reference Resources

For most operations submitted to a redirect reference resource, the 
response is a 302 (Moved Temporarily), accompanied by the Resource-Type 
header (defined in Section 14.2 below) set to "DAV:redirectref" and the 
Location header set to the URI of the target resource.  With this 
information, the client can resubmit the request to the URI of the 
target resource.  The methods COPY (for collections containing redirect 
reference resources), DELETE, MOVE, and LOCK, for reasons that will be 
explained, are exceptions to this general behavior. These exceptional 
operations are applied to the reference resource itself and do not 
result in a 302 response.

If the client is aware that it is operating on a redirect reference 
resource, it can resolve the reference by retrieving the reference 
resource's DAV:reftarget property (defined in Section 15.1 below), whose 
value contains the URI of the target resource.  It can then submit 
requests to the target resource. 

A redirect reference resource is a new type of resource. To distinguish 
redirect reference resources from non-reference resources, a new value 
of the DAV:resourcetype property (defined in [WebDAV]), DAV:redirectref, 
is defined in Section 16.1 below.

Since a redirect reference resource is a resource, it is possible to 
apply methods to the reference resource rather than to its target 
resource.  The Passthrough request header (defined in Section 14.3 
below) is provided so that referencing-aware clients can control whether 
an operation is applied to the redirect reference resource or to its 
target resource.  The Passthrough header can be used with most requests 
to redirect reference resources.  This header is particularly useful 
with PROPFIND, to retrieve the reference resource's own properties.

5 MKREF Method

5.1 Overview of MKREF

The MKREF method creates a redirect reference resource identified by the 
Request-URI, whose target is identified by the REQUIRED Ref-Target 
header. MKREF sets the value of the REQUIRED DAV:reftarget property to 
the value of the Ref-Target header.

The MKREF method creates a new binding between the new redirect 

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reference resource and the last path segment of the Request-URI.  The 
new binding is added to its parent collection, identified by the 
Request-URI minus its trailing slash (if present) and final segment.

MKREF requests MAY include an entity body.  This specification does not 
define the action to be taken if a request entity body is present, but 
allows it for extensibility. 

By default, if the Request-URI of the MKREF request identifies an 
existing resource, the request MUST fail with a 405 (Method Not Allowed) 
response code. This default behavior can be overridden using the 
Overwrite header defined in Section 9.6 of [WebDAV].

5.2 Status Codes

201 (Created): The redirect reference resource was successfully created.

400 (Bad Request): The client set an invalid value for the Ref-Target 
header.

405 (Method Not Allowed): A resource already exists at the Request-URI.

409 (Conflict): Several conditions may produce this response.  There may 
be no resource at the location specified in Ref-Target, on a server that 
prohibits dangling reference resources.  The request may be attempting 
to create the reference resource in a collection that does not exist. 

412 (Precondition Failed): The Overwrite header is "F" or absent, and a 
resource already exists at the request-URI.  

5.3 Example: MKREF

>> Request:

MKREF /~whitehead/dav/spec08.ref HTTP/1.1
Host: www.ics.uci.edu
Ref-Target: </i-d/draft-webdav-protocol-08.txt>

>> Response:

HTTP/1.1 201 Created

This request resulted in the creation of a new redirect reference 
resource at www.ics.uci.edu/~whitehead/dav/spec08.ref, which points to 
the resource identified by the Ref-Target header. In this example, the 
target resource of the referential resource is identified by the URI 
http://www.ics.uci.edu/~whitehead/dav/i-d/draft-webdav-protocol-08.txt. 
The referential resource's DAV:resourcetype property is set to 
DAV:redirectref.  Its DAV:reftarget property is set to the value of the 
Ref-Target header, "/i-d/draft-webdav-protocol-08.txt".

6 Listing the Redirect Reference Resources in a Collection

A URI of a redirect reference resource can be an internal member URI of 
a collection just as the URI of a non-reference resource can.  A listing 

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of the internal member URIs of a collection shows all of the URIs that 
are internal members of the collection, whether they identify redirect 
reference resources or non-reference resources.  That is, a WebDAV 
PROPFIND request on a collection resource with the Depth header set to 1 
or infinity MUST return a response XML element for each member URI in 
the collection, whether it identifies a non-reference resource or a 
redirect reference resource.

For each redirect reference resource, the response element MUST contain 
a 302 (Moved Temporarily) status code unless a Passthrough header with 
the value "F" is included with the PROPFIND request.  The DAV:location 
pseudo-property and the DAV:resourcetype property MUST be included with 
the 302 status code, extending the syntax of the DAV:response element 
that was defined in [WebDAV] as described in Section 17 below.  A 
referencing-aware client can tell from the DAV:resourcetype property 
that the collection contains a redirect reference resource.  The 
DAV:location pseudo-property contains the absolute URI of the target 
resource.  A referencing-aware client can either use the URI value of 
the DAV:location pseudo-property to retrieve the properties of the 
target resource, or it can submit a PROPFIND to the redirect reference 
resource with "Passthrough: F" to retrieve its properties.  It is 
recommended that future editors of [WebDAV] define the DAV:location 
pseudo-property in [WebDAV], so that non-referencing clients will also 
be able to use the response to retrieve the properties of the target 
resource.

If the Depth header is set to infinity in the PROPFIND request, the 
server MUST NOT follow redirect reference resources into any collections 
to which they may refer.

The Passthrough header (defined in Section 14.3) MAY be used with a 
PROPFIND request on a collection. 

6.1 Example: PROPFIND on a Collection with Redirect Reference Resources

Suppose a PROPFIND request with Depth = infinity is submitted to the 
following collection, with the members shown here:

http://www.svr.com/MyCollection/
     (non-reference resource) diary.html
     (redirect reference resource) nunavut

>> Request:

PROPFIND /MyCollection/ HTTP/1.1
Host: www.svr.com
Depth: infinity
Content-Type: text/xml
Content-Length: xxxx

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<D:propfind xmlns:D="DAV: ">
   <D:prop xmlns:J="http://www.svr.com/jsprops/">
      <D:resourcetype/>
      <J:keywords/>

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   </D:prop>
</D:propfind>

>> Response:

HTTP/1.1 207 Multi-Status
Content-Type: text/xml
Content-Length: xxxx

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<D:multistatus xmlns:D="DAV:"
               xmlns:J="http://www.svr.com/jsprops/">
   <D:response>
      <D:href>http://www.svr.com/MyCollection/</D:href>
      <D:propstat>
         <D:prop>
            <D:resourcetype><D:collection/></D:resourcetype>
            <J:keywords>diary, interests, hobbies</J:keywords>
         </D:prop>
         <D:status>HTTP/1.1 200 OK</D:status>
      </D:propstat>
   </D:response>
   <D:response>
      <D:href>http://www.svr.com/MyCollection/diary.html</D:href>
      <D:propstat>
         <D:prop>
            <D:resourcetype/>
            <J:keywords>diary, travel, family, history</J:keywords>
         </D:prop>
         <D:status>HTTP/1.1 200 OK</D:status>
      </D:propstat>
   </D:response>
   <D:response>
      <D:href>http://www.svr.com/MyCollection/nunavut</D:href>
      <D:status>HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily</D:status>
      <D:prop>
         <D:location> 
            <D:href>http://www.inac.gc.ca/art/inuit/</D:href>
         </D:location>
         <D:resourcetype><D:redirectref/></D:resourcetype>
      </D:prop>
   </D:response>
</D:multistatus>

In this example the Depth header is set to infinity, and the Passthrough 
header is not used.  The collection contains one URI that identifies a 
redirect reference resource.  The response element for the redirect 
reference resource has a status of 302 (Moved Temporarily), and includes 
a DAV:prop element with the DAV:location pseudo-property and the 
DAV:resourcetype property to allow clients to retrieve the properties of 
its target resource.  (The response element for the redirect reference 
resource does not include the requested properties.  The client can 
submit another PROPFIND request to the URI in the DAV:location pseudo-
property to retrieve those properties.) 


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6.2 Example: PROPFIND with Passthrough: F on a Collection with Redirect 
    Reference Resources

Suppose a PROPFIND request with Passthrough = F and Depth = infinity is 
submitted to the following collection, with the members shown here:

/MyCollection/
     (non-reference resource) diary.html
     (redirect reference resource) nunavut

>> Request:

PROPFIND /MyCollection/ HTTP/1.1
Host: www.svr.com
Depth: infinity
Passthrough: F
Content-Type: text/xml
Content-Length: xxxx

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<D:propfind xmlns:D="DAV:">
   <D:prop>
      <D:resourcetype/>
      <D:reftarget/>
   </D:prop>
</D:propfind>

>> Response:

HTTP/1.1 207 Multi-Status
Content-Type: text/xml
Content-Length: xxxx

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<D:multistatus xmlns:D="DAV:">
   <D:response>
      <D:href>http://www.svr.com/MyCollection/</D:href>
      <D:propstat>
         <D:prop>
            <D:resourcetype><D:collection/></D:resourcetype>
         </D:prop>
         <D:status>HTTP/1.1 200 OK</D:status>
      </D:propstat>
      <D:propstat>
         <D:prop> <D:reftarget/> </D:prop>
         <D:status>HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found</D:status>
      </D:propstat>
   </D:response>
<D:response>
      <D:href>http://www.svr.com/MyCollection/diary.html</D:href>
      <D:propstat>
         <D:prop>
            <D:resourcetype/>
         </D:prop>
         <D:status>HTTP/1.1 200 OK</D:status>

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      </D:propstat>
      <D:propstat>
         <D:prop> <D:reftarget/> </D:prop>
         <D:status>HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found</D:status>
      </D:propstat>
   </D:response>
   <D:response>
      <D:href>http://www.svr.com/MyCollection/nunavut</D:href>
      <D:propstat>
         <D:prop>
            <D:resourcetype><D:redirectref/></D:resourcetype>
            <D:reftarget>
               <D:href>http://www.inac.gc.ca/art/inuit/</D:href>
            </D:reftarget>
         </D:prop>
         <D:status>HTTP/1.1 200 OK</D:status>
      </D:propstat>
   </D:response>
</D:multistatus>

Since the Passthrough header has the value "F", the response shows the 
properties of the redirect reference resource in the collection rather 
than the properties of its target. The value of the Passthrough header 
also prevents a 302 response from being returned for the redirect 
reference resource.

7 Copying Redirect Reference Resources

A client's intent in performing a COPY operation is to create a new 
resource that is similar to the original resource and behaves like the 
original resource, and that can be modified without affecting the 
original resource.  For a COPY request to a redirect reference resource, 
the expectation would be a 302 response that the client could use to 
copy the target resource.  This would yield an independent resource that 
could be modified without affecting the original resource.  For COPY 
requests to collections that contain redirect reference resources, the 
situation is less clear.  There is tension between two expectations. On 
the one hand, the client may expect the new copy of the collection to 
behave like the old one (which implies having reference resources where 
the old one had reference resources).  On the other hand, the client may 
expect that it will be possible to modify the resources in the new 
collection without affecting the resources in the old collection (which 
implies having copies of the target resources where the original 
collection had reference resources).

For a COPY request on an individual reference resource, the response 
MUST be a 302 (Moved Temporarily) status code, with the URI of the 
target resource in the Location header, and "Resource-Type: 
DAV:redirectref" to distinguish the response from an ordinary HTTP 
redirect.  This is the normal behavior for redirect reference resources, 
allowing the client to resubmit the request to the target resource 
identified in the Location header.  This also yields intuitively correct 
behavior for a COPY request to an individual reference resource.  
Reference-aware clients can use the Passthrough header with the value 
"F" to copy the redirect reference resource itself.

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For COPY on a collection containing redirect reference resources, 
different semantics may be desirable in different scenarios.  
Consequently, this specification makes a fairly arbitrary choice to take 
the simplest path.  When a COPY request is submitted to a collection 
containing redirect reference resources, the server MUST copy the 
redirect reference resources to the new collection rather than returning 
302 status codes for them.  This will result in a new collection that 
behaves like the old one, and avoids responding with multiple 302 status 
codes, each of which the client would have to process separately.  
Reference-aware clients can force the server to respond with 302 status 
codes rather than copying the reference resources by using the 
Passthrough header with the value "T".

7.1 Example: COPY on a Redirect Reference Resource

>> Request:

COPY /MyCollection/tuva HTTP/1.1
Host: www.svr.com
Destination: http://www.svr.com/OtherCollection/tuva.html

>> Response:

HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
Location: http://www.svr.com/Asia/History/tuva.html
Resource-Type: DAV:redirectref

In this example, the request-URI identifies a redirect reference 
resource whose target resource is identified by 
http://www.svr.com/Asia/History/tuva.html.  In this case, the server 
responded with a 302, and provided the URL of the target resource in the 
Location header.  The Resource-Type header indicates to a reference-
aware client that this is not an HTTP 1.1 redirect, but a reference to 
the resource identified by the Location header.  The client can now 
resubmit the COPY request to the target resource, producing the desired 
result: a duplicate of the original target resource that can be modified 
independently of the original.

7.2 Example: COPY on a Collection That Contains a Redirect Reference 
    Resource

Suppose a COPY request is submitted to the following collection, with 
the members shown:

/MyCollection/
     (non-reference resource) diary.html
     (redirect reference resource) nunavut with target       
                                /Someplace/nunavut.map

>> Request:

COPY /MyCollection/ HTTP/1.1
Host: www.svr.com
Destination: http://www.svr.com/OtherCollection/

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>> Response:

HTTP/1.1 201 Created

In this case, since /MyCollection/nunavut is a redirect reference 
resource, the reference resource itself, and not its target resource, 
was copied into the new collection.  So the resulting collection is as 
follows:

/OtherCollection/
      (non-reference resource) diary.html
      (redirect reference resource) nunavut with target 
                                 /Someplace/nunavut.map

8 Deleting and Moving Redirect Reference Resources

The DELETE method is used to delete bindings to redirect reference 
resources. DELETE MUST affect bindings to the reference resource itself, 
unless "Passthrough: T" is used, in which case it generates a 302 (Moved 
Temporarily) response.  Similarly, when a DELETE on a collection 
encounters a redirect reference resource in the subtree under that 
collection, it MUST delete bindings to the reference resource, unless 
"Passthrough: T" is used, in which case it generates a 302 (Moved 
Temporarily) response. Whether deleting an individual resource or a 
collection, DELETE on a redirect reference resource does not affect the 
target of the reference resource.

A MOVE operation on a redirect reference resource MUST move the 
reference resource to a different location, and MUST NOT change the 
location of its target resource, unless "Passthrough: T" is used, in 
which case a 302 (Moved Temporarily) response is generated. The 
DAV:reftarget property is unchanged after a MOVE.  Similarly, when a 
MOVE on a collection encounters a redirect reference resource in the 
subtree under that collection, it MUST move the reference resource, and 
not its target, unless "Passthrough: T" is used, in which case a 302 
(Moved Temporarily) response is generated.

DELETE and MOVE differ from other methods in that they do not alter the 
resource that is being deleted or moved, but rather the collection that 
contains its binding.  They change the membership of that collection.

When a redirect reference resource is added to a collection, the aim is 
to make it look as if the target resource were a member of that 
collection.  When the reference resource is removed from that 
collection, the aim is to change the membership of that collection.  
Membership of the target resource in any other collections, either 
internally or by reference, should not be affected.  Consequently, 
DELETE and MOVE do not follow the normal rules of behavior for reference 
resources.  Instead, they are applied by default to the reference 
resource itself, not to its target resource, and by default do not 
result in 302 status codes.

9 Locking Redirect Reference Resources


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The semantics of LOCK described here resulted from balancing a set of 
incompatible considerations:

o Ideally, a LOCK on a redirect reference resource should lock both the 
  reference resource and its target resource.  The owner of an 
  exclusive write lock, for example, would be surprised if anyone else 
  could modify the content of the target resource while he held the 
  lock.  He would also be surprised if anyone else could delete the 
  reference to it, or replace the reference resource with one pointing 
  to a different target resource.
o Non-referencing clients should be able to use redirect reference 
  resources without encountering surprising results.
o The basic characteristics of redirect reference resources should be 
  honored.  Redirect reference resources should be simple for servers 
  to implement. In particular, a server should never have to resolve a 
  redirect reference.  A server should not have to provide proxy 
  capabilities in order to implement redirect references.
o There should be consistency between the behavior of LOCK on a single 
  redirect reference resource and the behavior of LOCK on a collection 
  that contains redirect reference resources.
o The behavior of all requests to redirect reference resources should 
  be as consistent as possible. In the absence of a Passthrough header, 
  all methods should return a 302 when sent to a redirect reference 
  resource.
o LOCK semantics for redirect reference resources should be consistent 
  with the LOCK semantics defined in [WebDAV].

We have compromised the intuitive locking behavior and support for non-
referencing clients in order to preserve various sorts of consistency. 

The behavior of LOCK for redirect reference resources was determined by 
what is possible for the case of locking collections that contain 
redirect reference resources.  

The default behavior for any operation on a redirect reference resource 
is that a 302 (Moved Temporarily) response will be returned, unless the 
Passthrough header with a value of "F" is used.  However, this policy 
has unacceptable consequences when locking a collection that contains 
redirect reference resources.  Since [WebDAV] requires LOCK on a 
collection to be an atomic operation, if a 302 response is received for 
any member of the collection, the entire LOCK must fail.  This would 
make it impossible to lock any collection that contained a redirect 
reference resource. 

To avoid this result, a LOCK with Depth > 0 on a collection MUST lock 
any redirect reference resources it encounters, and not return 302 
responses for them, unless the Passthrough header with a value of "T" is 
used.  Use of the Passthrough header with a value of "T" in a LOCK 
request on a collection will cause the entire lock to fail if a redirect 
reference resource is encountered.

This gives part of the expected default lock behavior without forcing 
the server to resolve the redirect reference or become a proxy server in 
cases where the target resides on a different server. 


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There will be no hint in any response code that there are redirect 
reference resources whose targets need to be locked.  The client will 
most likely not lock any target resources until it attempts an operation 
on the target resource and gets a 302 response.  It is possible that a 
non-referencing client may never realize that the reference resource's 
target has not been locked.  

Clearly, a LOCK with Depth = infinity on a collection MUST NOT follow 
any redirect reference resources whose targets are collections into the 
target collections; it MUST NOT cause any resources in those target 
collections to be locked.

The behavior of LOCK for individual redirect reference resources is 
designed to be consistent with LOCK behavior for collections that 
contain redirect reference resources.  By default a LOCK on a redirect 
reference resource MUST lock only the reference resource, not its target 
resource, and it MUST NOT return a 302 response.  A reference-aware 
client can use the Passthrough header with a value of "T" to get a 302 
response with the URI of the target resource in the Location header.

UNLOCK behaves as specified in [WebDAV], unlocking all resources 
included in the lock identified by the Lock-Token header.

9.1 Example: LOCK on a Redirect Reference Resource

>> Request:

LOCK /MyCollection/tuva HTTP/1.1
Host: www.svr.com
Content-Type: text/xml
Content-Length: nnnn
Authorizaton: Digest username="jas",
   realm=jas@webdav.sb.aol.com, nonce=". . . ",
   uri="/MyCollection/tuva",
   response=". . . ", opaque=". . . "

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<D:lockinfo xmlns:D="DAV:">
   <D:lockscope><D:exclusive/></D:lockscope>
   <D:locktype><D:write/></D:locktype>
   <D:owner>
      <D:href>http://www.svr.com/~jas/contact.html</D:href>
   </D:owner>
</D:lockinfo>

>> Response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/xml
Content-Length: nnnn

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<D:prop xmlns:D="DAV:">
   <D:lockdiscovery>
      <D:activelock>

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         <D:lockscope><D:exclusive/></D:lockscope>
         <D:locktype><D:write/></D:locktype>
         <D:depth>0</D:depth>
         <D:owner>
            <D:href>http://www.svr.com/~jas/contact.html</D:href>
         </D:owner>
         <D:locktoken>
            opaquelocktoken:e71dfae-5dec-22d6-fea5-00a0c91e6be4
         </D:locktoken>
      </D:activelock>
   </D:lockdiscovery>
</D:prop>

The request and response look exactly as specified in [WebDAV].  In this 
example, the request-URI, http://www.svr.com/MyCollection/tuva,  
identifies a redirect reference resource, which was successfully locked.  
The target resource of the redirect reference resource is not locked.

9.2 Example: LOCK on a Collection That Contains a Redirect Reference 
    Resource, with Passthrough: T

Suppose a LOCK request is submitted to the following collection, with 
the members shown:

/MyCollection/
     (non-reference resource) diary.html
     (redirect reference resource) nunavut

>> Request:

LOCK /MyCollection/ HTTP/1.1
Host: www.svr.com
Passthrough: T
Content-Type: text/xml
Content-Length: nnnn
Authorizaton: Digest username="jas",
   realm=jas@webdav.sb.aol.com, nonce=". . . ",
   uri="/MyCollection/tuva",
   response=". . . ", opaque=". . . "

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<D:lockinfo xmlns:D="DAV:">
   <D:lockscope><D:exclusive/></D:lockscope>
   <D:locktype><D:write/></D:locktype>
   <D:owner>
      <D:href>http://www.svr.com/~jas/contact.html</D:href>
   </D:owner>
</D:lockinfo>

>> Response:

HTTP/1.1 207 Multi-Status
Content-Type: text/xml
Content-Length: nnnn


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<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<D:multistatus xmlns:D="Dav:">
   <D:response>
      <D:href>http://www.svr.com/MyCollection/</D:href>
      <D:propstat>
         <D:prop><D:lockdiscovery/></D:prop>
         <D:status>HTTP/1.1 424 Failed Dependency</D:status>
      </D:propstat>
   </D:response>
   <D:response>
      <D:href>http://www.svr.com/MyCollection/diary.html</D:href>
      <D:status>HTTP/1.1 424 Failed Dependency</D:status>
   </D:response>
   <D:response>
      <D:href>http://www.svr.com/MyCollection/nunavut</D:href>
      <D:status>HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily</D:status>
      <D:prop>
         <D:location>
            <D:href>http://www.inac.gc.ca/art/inuit/</D:href>
         </D:location>
         <D:resourcetype><D:redirectref/></D:resourcetype>
      </D:prop>
   </D:response>
</D:multistatus>

The "Passthrough: T" header caused the server to return a 302 response 
code for the redirect reference resource in the collection.  
Consequently, neither the collection nor any of the resources identified 
by its internal member URIs were locked.  A referencing-aware client can 
submit a separate LOCK request to the URI in the DAV:location pseudo-
property returned for the redirect reference resource, and can resubmit 
the LOCK request with "Passthrough: F" to the collection.  At that point 
both the reference resource and its target resource will be locked (as 
well as the collection and all the resources identified by its other 
members).

10 Other Operations on Redirect Reference Resources

Although non-referencing-aware clients cannot create reference 
resources, they should be able to submit requests through the reference 
resources created by reference-aware WebDAV clients.  They should be 
able to follow any references to their targets.  To make this possible, 
a server that receives a GET, HEAD, PUT, POST, OPTIONS, PROPFIND, 
PROPPATCH, MKCOL, MKREF, BIND, or ORDERPATCH request made via a redirect 
reference resource MUST return a 302 (Moved Temporarily) status code. 
The client and server MUST follow [HTTP] Section 10.3.3 "302 Moved 
Temporarily," but with these additional rules: 

o The Location response header MUST contain the absolute target URI of 
  the reference resource.  

o The response MUST include the Resource-Type header.  This header 
  allows reference-aware WebDAV clients to recognize the resource as a 
  reference resource and understand the reason for the redirection. 


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A reference-aware WebDAV client can act on this response in one of two 
ways.  It can, like a non-referencing client, resubmit the request to 
the URI in the Location header in order to operate on the target 
resource.  Alternatively, it can resubmit the request to the URI of the 
redirect reference resource with the Passthrough header set to "F" in 
order to operate on the reference resource itself.  If the Passthrough 
header is present with a value of "F", the request MUST be applied to 
the reference resource itself, and a 302 response MUST NOT be returned.

If a reference-aware client knows before submitting its request that the 
request-URI identifies a redirect reference resource, and if the client 
wants to apply the method to the reference resource, it can save the 
round trip caused by the 302 response by using "Passthrough: F" in its 
initial request to the URI.

"Passthrough: F" can be used with GET or HEAD to retrieve the entity 
headers of a redirect reference resource.  When "Passthrough: F" is used 
with GET or HEAD, the referencing entity headers (Ref-Type and Ref-
Target) MUST be returned, along with all HTTP headers that make sense 
for reference resources (for example, Cache-Control, Age, ETag, Expires, 
and Last-Modified).  

"Passthrough: F" can be used with PUT to replace the redirect reference 
resource with a non-reference resource.  It can be used with OPTIONS to 
retrieve the capabilities of a redirect reference resource.  

Clients MUST NOT, however, use "Passthrough: F" with POST. Since a 
reference resource cannot accept another entity as its subordinate, an 
attempt to POST to a reference resource with "Passthrough: F" will also 
fail.  If a server receives a POST request with "Passthrough: F" on a 
redirect reference resource, it MUST fail the request with a 400 (Bad 
Request) status code.

Since MKCOL fails when applied to existing resources, if the client 
attempts to resubmit the request to the target resource, the request 
MUST fail (unless the reference resource is a dangling reference).  
Similarly, if the client attempts to resubmit the request to the 
reference resource with "Passthrough: F", the request MUST fail.

Since ORDERPATCH applies only to collections, an ORDERPATCH request with 
a Passthrough header with the value "F" on a redirect reference resource 
MUST fail.

10.1 Example: GET on a Redirect Reference Resource

>> Request:

GET /bar.html HTTP/1.1
Host: www.foo.com 

>> Response:

HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
Location: http://www.svr.com/Internet/xxspec08.html
Resource-Type: DAV:redirectref

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Since /bar.html is a redirect reference resource and the Passthrough 
header is not included in the request, the response is a 302 (Moved 
Temporarily).  The Resource-Type header informs a reference-aware client 
that this is not an ordinary HTTP 1.1 redirect, but is a redirect 
reference resource.  The URI of the target resource is provided in the 
Location header so that the client can resubmit the request to the 
target resource.

10.2 Example: PUT on a Redirect Reference Resource with "Passthrough: F"

>> Request:

PUT /bar.html HTTP/1.1 
Host: www.foo.com
Passthrough: F 
Content-Type: text/xml; charset="utf-8" 
Content-Length: xxxx

. . . some content . . .

>> Response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK 

Although /bar.html is a redirect reference resource, the presence of the 
"Passthrough: F" header prevents a 302 response, and instead causes the 
request to be applied to the reference resource.  The result in this 
case is that the reference resource is replaced by a non-reference 
resource having the content submitted with the request.

10.3 Example: PROPPATCH on a Redirect Reference Resource

Request:

PROPPATCH /bar.html HTTP/1.1 
Host: www.foo.com 
Content-Type: text/xml; charset="utf-8" 
Content-Length: xxxx 

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
   <D:propertyupdate xmlns:D="DAV:"
   xmlns:Z="http://www.w3.com/standards/z39.50/">
     <D:set>
          <D:prop>
               <Z:authors>
                    <Z:Author>Jim Whitehead</Z:Author>
                    <Z:Author>Roy Fielding</Z:Author>
               </Z:authors>
          </D:prop>
     </D:set>
     <D:remove>
          <D:prop><Z:Copyright-Owner/></D:prop>
     </D:remove>
   </D:propertyupdate>

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Response:

HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
Location: http://www.svr.com/Internet/xxspec08.html
Resource-Type: DAV:redirectref

Since /bar.html is a redirect reference resource and the Passthrough 
header is not included in the request, the response is a 302 (Moved 
Temporarily).  The Resource-Type header informs a reference-aware client 
that this is not an ordinary HTTP 1.1 redirect, but is a redirect 
reference resource.  The URI of the target resource is provided in the 
Location header so that the client can resubmit the request to the 
target resource.

11 Operations on Targets of Redirect Reference Resources

Operations on targets of redirect reference resources have no effect on 
the reference resource. 

12 Relative URIs in Ref-Target and DAV:reftarget

The URI in a Ref-Target header MAY be a relative URI.  Similarly, the 
href in a DAV:reftarget property MAY be a relative URI.  In both cases, 
the base URI to be used for resolving the relative URI to absolute form 
is the URI used in the HTTP message to identify the redirect reference 
resource to which the Ref-Target entity header or DAV:reftarget property 
belongs.  

In the case of a Ref-Target header, the base URI is constructed as 
follows: Its scheme component is "http", its authority component is the 
value of the Host header in the request, and its path component is the 
request-URI in the request.  See Section 5 of [URI] for a discussion of 
relative URI references and how to resolve them.

The DAV:reftarget property appears in the protocol in the context of a 
Multi-Status response, in a DAV:response element that contains a single 
DAV:href element.  The value of this DAV:href element serves as the base 
URI for resolving a relative URI in DAV:reftarget.  The value of 
DAV:href may itself be relative, in which case it must be resolved first 
in order to serve as the base URI for the relative URI in DAV:reftarget.  
If the DAV:href element is relative, its base URI is constructed from 
the scheme component "http", the value of the Host header in the 
request, and the request-URI.

12.1 Example: Resolving a Relative URI in Ref-Target

>> Request:

MKREF /north/inuvik HTTP/1.1
Host: www.somehost.edu
Ref-Target: <mapcollection/inuvik.gif>

>> Response:


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HTTP/1.1 201 Created

In this example, the base URI is http://www.somehost.edu/north/inuvik.  
Then, following the rules in [URI] Section 5, the relative URI in Ref-
Target resolves to the absolute URI 
http://www.somehost.edu/north/mapcollection/inuvik.gif. 

12.2 Example: Resolving a Relative URI in DAV:reftarget

>> Request:

PROPFIND /geog/ HTTP/1.1
Host: www.xxsvr.com
Passthrough: F
Depth: 1
Content-Type: text/xml
Content-Length: nnn

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<D:propfind xmlns:D="DAV:">
   <D:prop>
      <D:resourcetype/>
      <D:reftarget/>
   </D:prop>
</D:propfind>

>> Response:

HTTP/1.1 207 Multi-Status
Content-Type: text/xml
Content-Length: nnn

<?xml version="1/0" ?>
<D:multistatus xmlns:D="DAV:">
   <D:response>
      <D:href>/geog/</D:href>
      <D:propstat>
         <D:prop>
            <D:resourcetype><D:collection/></D:resourcetype>
         </D:prop>
         <D:status>HTTP/1.1 200 OK</D:status>
     </D:propstat>
     <D:propstat>
         <D:prop><D:reftarget/></D:prop>
         <D:status>HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found</D:status>
     </D:propstat>
   </D:response>
   <D:response>
      <D:href>/geog/stats.html</D:href>
      <D:propstat>
         <D:prop>
            <D:resourcetype><D:redirectref/></D:resourcetype>
            <D:reftarget><D:href>statistics/population/1997.html
                 </D:href></D:reftarget>
         </D:prop>

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         <D:status>HTTP/1.1 200 OK</D:status>
      </D:propstat>
   </D:response>
</D:multistatus>

In this example, the relative URI statistics/population/1997.html is 
returned as the value of reftarget for the reference resource identified 
by href /geog/stats.html.  The href is itself a relative URI, which 
resolves to http://www.xxsrv.com/geog/stats.html.  This is the base URI 
for resolving the relative URI in reftarget.  The absolute URI of 
reftarget is http://www.xxsrv.com/geog/statistics/population/1997.html.

13 Redirect References to Collections

In a Request-URI /segment1/segment2/segment3, any of the three segments 
may identify a redirect reference resource.  (See [URI], Section 3.3, 
for definitions of "path" and "segment".)  If any segment in a Request-
URI identifies a redirect reference resource, the response is a 302.  
The value of the Location header in the 302 response is as follows: 

The leftmost path segment of the request-URI that identifies a redirect 
reference resource, together with all path segments and separators to 
the left of it, is replaced by the value of the redirect reference 
resource's DAV:reftarget property (resolved to an absolute URI).  The 
remainder of the request-URI is concatenated to this path.  

Note: If the DAV:reftarget property ends with a "/" and the remainder of 
the Request-URI is non-empty (and therefore must begin with a "/"), the 
final "/" in the DAV:reftarget property is dropped before the remainder 
of the Request-URI is appended.

Consider Request-URI /x/y/z.html.  Suppose that /x/ is a redirect 
reference resource whose target resource is collection /a/, which 
contains redirect reference resource y whose target resource is 
collection /b/, which contains redirect reference resource z.html whose 
target resource is /c/d.html.

/x/ -----> /a/
           /a/y/ -----> /b/
                        /b/z.html -----> /c/d.html

In this case the client must follow up three separate 302 responses 
before finally reaching the target resource.  The server responds to the 
initial request with a 302 with Location: /a/y/z.html, and the client 
resubmits the request to /a/y/z.html.  The server responds to this 
request with a 302 with Location: /b/z.html, and the client resubmits 
the request to /b/z.html.  The server responds to this request with a 
302 with Location: /c/d.html, and the client resubmits the request to 
/c/d.html.  This final request succeeds.

14 Headers

14.1 Ref-Target Entity Header

Ref-Target = "Ref-Target" ":" Generic-Coded-url

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Generic-Coded-url = "<" (absoluteURI | relativeURI) ">"
absoluteURI is defined in Section 3 of [URI].
relativeURI is defined in Section 5 of [URI].

The Ref-Target header is defined primarily for use with MKREF requests 
to identify the target resource of the new redirect reference resource 
being created. 

14.2 Resource-Type Entity Header

Resource-Type = "Resource-Type" ":" ("DAV:redirectref" | 
                                      ext-resource-type)
ext-resource-type = coded-URL 

The Resource-Type header is defined primarily for use in 302 responses, 
to allow reference-aware clients to distinguish between HTTP 1.1 
redirects and 302 responses for redirect reference resources.  The 
possible values of this header are DAV:redirectref, and ext-resource-
type. The ext-resource-type production is provided for extensibility.  

14.3 Passthrough Request Header

Passthrough = "Passthrough" ":" ("T" | "F")

The optional Passthrough header can be used on any request to a redirect 
reference resource.  If the Passthrough header has the value "F", the 
request MUST be applied to the reference resource itself, and a 302 
response MUST NOT be returned.  If the Passthrough header has the value 
"T", a 302 response MUST be returned, with the URI of the target 
resource in the Location header and the Resource-Type header with a 
value "DAV:redirectref".  

If the Passthrough header is used on a request to any other sort of 
resource besides a reference resource, the server SHOULD ignore it.  If 
the Passthrough header with the value "F" appears in a POST or 
ORDERPATCH request to a reference resource, the server MUST respond with 
a 400 (Bad Request).

15 Properties

15.1 reftarget Property

Name:	    reftarget
Namespace:  DAV:
Purpose:    A property of redirect reference resources that provides an 
            efficient way for clients to discover the URI of the target 
            resource.  This is a read-only property, whose value can 
            only be set by using the Ref-Target header with a MKREF 
            request.
Value: 	    href containing the URI of the target resource.  This value 
            MAY be a relative URI.  The reftarget property can occur in 
            the entity bodies of responses to PROPFIND requests.

<!ELEMENT reftarget href >


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15.2 location Pseudo-Property

Name:       location
Namespace:  DAV:
Purpose:    For use with 302 (Moved Temporarily) response codes in 
            Multi-Status responses.  It contains the absolute URI of the 
            temporary location of the resource.  In the context of 
            redirect reference resources, this value is the absolute URI 
            of the target resource.  It is analogous to the Location 
            header in HTTP 302 responses defined in [HTTP] Section 
            10.3.3 "302 Moved Temporarily."  Including the location 
            pseudo-property in a Multi-Status response requires an 
            extension to the syntax of the DAV:response element defined 
            in [WebDAV], which is defined in Section 17 below.  This 
            pseudo-property is not expected to be stored on the 
            reference resource. It is modeled as a property only so that 
            it can be returned inside a DAV:prop element in a Multi-
            Status response.
Value:      href containing the absolute URI of the target resource.

<!ELEMENT location href >

16 XML Elements

16.1 redirectref XML Element

Name: 	    redirectref
Namespace:  DAV:
Purpose:    Used as the value of the DAV:resourcetype property to   
            specify that the resource type is a redirect reference   
            resource.  

<!ELEMENT redirectref EMPTY >

17 Extensions to the DAV:response XML Element for Multi-Status Responses

As described in Sections 6 and 9, the DAV:location pseudo-property and 
the DAV:reftype property may be returned in the DAV:response element of 
a 207 Multi-Status response, to allow clients to resubmit their requests 
to the target resource of a redirect reference resource.  

Whenever these properties are included in a Multi-Status response, they 
are placed in a DAV:prop element associated with the href to which they 
apply.  This structure provides a framework for future extensions by 
other standards that may need to include additional properties in their 
responses.

Consequently, the definition of the DAV:response XML element changes to 
the following:

<!ELEMENT response (href, ((href*, status, prop?) | (propstat+)), 
responsedescription?) >

18 Capability Discovery


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Sections 9.1 and 15 of [WebDAV] describe the use of compliance classes 
with the DAV header in responses to OPTIONS, to indicate which parts of 
the Web Distributed Authoring protocols the resource supports. This 
specification defines an OPTIONAL extension to [WebDAV].  It defines a 
new compliance class, called redirectrefs, for use with the DAV header 
in responses to OPTIONS requests.  If a resource does support redirect 
references, its response to an OPTIONS request MUST indicate that it 
does, by listing the new MKREF method as one it supports, and by listing 
the new redirectrefs compliance class in the DAV header.

When responding to an OPTIONS request, any type of resource can include 
redirectrefs in the value of the DAV header.  Doing so indicates that 
the server permits a redirect reference resource at the request URI.

18.1 Example: Discovery of Support for Redirect Reference Resources

>> Request:

OPTIONS /somecollection/someresource HTTP/1.1
HOST: somehost.org

>> Response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 20:52:29 GMT
Connection: close
Accept-Ranges: none
Allow: OPTIONS, GET, HEAD, POST, PUT, DELETE, TRACE, COPY, MOVE, MKCOL, 
PROPFIND, PROPPATCH, LOCK, UNLOCK, MKREF
Public: OPTIONS, GET, HEAD, POST, PUT, DELETE, TRACE, COPY, MOVE, MKCOL, 
PROPFIND, PROPPATCH, LOCK, UNLOCK, BIND, MKREF, ORDERPATCH
DAV: 1, 2, redirectrefs

The DAV header in the response indicates that the resource 
/somecollection/someresource is level 1 and level 2 compliant, as 
defined in [WebDAV].  In addition, /somecollection/someresource supports 
redirect reference resources.  The Allow header indicates that MKREF 
requests can be submitted to /somecollection/someresource.  The Public 
header shows that other Request-URIs on the server support additional 
methods.

19 Security Considerations

This section is provided to make WebDAV applications aware of the 
security implications of this protocol. 

All of the security considerations of HTTP/1.1 and the WebDAV 
Distributed Authoring Protocol specification also apply to this protocol 
specification.  In addition, redirect reference resources introduce 
several new security concerns and increase the risk of some existing 
threats.  These issues are detailed below.

19.1 Privacy Concerns

By creating redirect reference resources on a trusted server, it is 

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possible for a hostile agent to induce users to send private information 
to a target on a different server.   This risk is mitigated somewhat, 
since clients are required to notify the user of the redirection for any 
request other than GET or HEAD. (See [HTTP], Section 10.3.3 Moved 
Temporarily.)

19.2 Redirect Loops

Although redirect loops were already possible in HTTP 1.1, the 
introduction of the MKREF method creates a new avenue for clients to 
create loops accidentally or maliciously.  If the reference resource and 
its target are on the same server, the server may be able to detect 
MKREF requests that would create loops. See also [HTTP], Section 10.3 
"Redirection 3xx."

19.3 Redirect Reference Resources and Denial of Service

Denial of service attacks were already possible by posting URLs that 
were intended for limited use at heavily used Web sites.  The 
introduction of MKREF creates a new avenue for similar denial of service 
attacks.  Clients can now create redirect reference resources at heavily 
used sites to target locations that were not designed for heavy usage.

19.4 Private Locations May Be Revealed

There are several ways that redirect reference resources may reveal 
information about directory structures.  First, the DAV:reftarget 
property of every redirect reference resource contains the URI of the 
target resource.  Anyone who has access to the reference resource can 
discover the directory path that leads to the target resource.   The 
owner of the target resource may have wanted to limit knowledge of this 
directory structure.

Sufficiently powerful access control mechanisms can control this risk to 
some extent.  Property-level access control could prevent users from 
examining the DAV:reftarget property.  (The Ref-Target and Location 
headers, which are returned in some responses to requests on redirect 
reference resources, reveal the same information, however.)  In some 
environments, the owner of a resource might be able to use access 
control to prevent others from creating references to that resource.

20 Internationalization Considerations

This specification follows the practices of [WebDAV] in encoding all 
human-readable content using XML [XML] and in the treatment of names.  
Consequently, this specification complies with the IETF Character Set 
Policy [Alvestrand].

WebDAV applications MUST support the character set tagging, character 
set encoding, and the language tagging functionality of the XML 
specification.  This constraint ensures that the human-readable content 
of this specification complies with [Alvestrand].

As in [WebDAV}, names in this specification fall into three categories: 
names of protocol elements such as methods and headers, names of XML 

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elements, and names of properties.  Naming of protocol elements follows 
the precedent of HTTP, using English names encoded in USASCII for 
methods and headers.  The names of XML elements used in this 
specification are English names encoded in UTF-8.

For error reporting, [WebDAV] follows the convention of HTTP/1.1 status 
codes, including with each status code a short, English description of 
the code (e.g., 423 Locked).  Internationalized applications will ignore 
this message, and display an appropriate message in the user's language 
and character set.
 
For rationales for these decisions and advice for application 
implementors, see [WebDAV].

21 IANA Considerations

This document uses the namespaces defined by [WebDAV] for properties and 
XML elements.  All other IANA considerations mentioned in [WebDAV] also 
apply to this document.

22 Copyright

To be supplied by the RFC Editor.

23 Intellectual Property

To be supplied by the RFC Editor.

24 Acknowledgements

This draft has benefited from thoughtful discussion by Jim Amsden, Steve 
Carter, Ken Coar, Ellis Cohen, Bruce Cragun, Spencer Dawkins, Mark Day, 
Rajiv Dulepet, David Durand, Roy Fielding, Yaron Goland, Fred Hitt, Alex 
Hopmann, Marcus Jager, Chris Kaler, Manoj Kasichainula, Rohit Khare, 
Daniel LaLiberte, Steve Martin, Larry Masinter, Jeff McAffer, Surendra 
Koduru Reddy, Max Rible, Sam Ruby, Bradley Sergeant, Nick Shelness, John 
Stracke, John Tigue, John Turner, and others.

25 References

[URI] T. Berners-Lee, R. Fielding, L. Masinter, "Uniform Resource 
Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax." RFC 2396. MIT/LCS, U.C. Irvine, 
Xerox. August, 1998.

[RFC2119] S. Bradner, "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement 
Levels."  RFC 2119, BCP 14.  Harvard University.  March, 1997.

[XML] T. Bray, J. Paoli, C.M. Sperberg-McQueen, "Extensible Markup 
Language (XML)."  World Wide Web Consortium Recommendation REC-xml-
19980210. http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/REC-xml-19980210.

[HTTP] R. Fielding, J. Gettys, J. Mogul, H. Frystyk, L. Masinter, P. 
Leach, T. Berners-Lee, "Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1." RFC 
2616.  UC Irvine, Compaq, W3C, Xerox, Microsoft.  June, 1999.


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[WebDAV] Y. Y. Goland, E. J. Whitehead, Jr., A. Faizi, S. R. Carter, D. 
Jensen, "HTTP Extensions for Distributed Authoring - WebDAV." RFC 2518.  
Microsoft, U.C. Irvine, Netscape, Novell.  February, 1999.

[B] J. Slein, E.J. Whitehead Jr., J. Davis, G. Clemm, C. Fay, J. 
Crawford, T. Chihaya, "WebDAV Bindings." Internet Draft (work in 
progress) draft-ietf-webdav-binding-protocol-00. Xerox, UC Irvine, 
CourseNet, Rational, FileNet, IBM, DataChannel. August, 1999.

[OC] J. Slein, E.J. Whitehead Jr., J. Davis, G. Clemm, C. Fay, J. 
Crawford, T. Chihaya, "WebDAV Ordered Collections." Internet Draft (work 
in progress) draft-ietf-webdav-ordering-protocol-00. Xerox, UC Irvine, 
CourseNet, Rational, FileNet, IBM, DataChannel. August, 1999.

26 Authors' Addresses

J. Slein
Xerox Corporation
800 Phillips Road, 105-50C
Webster, NY 14580
Email: jslein@crt.xerox.com

E. J. Whitehead, Jr.
Dept. of Information and Computer Science
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697-3425
Email: ejw@ics.uci.edu

J. Davis
CourseNet Systems
170 Capp Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
Email: jrd3@alum.mit.edu

G. Clemm
Rational Software Corporation
20 Maguire Road
Lexington, MA 02173-3104
Email: gclemm@rational.com

C. Fay
FileNet Corporation
3565 Harbor Boulevard
Costa Mesa, CA 92626-1420
Email: cfay@filenet.com

J. Crawford
IBM
Email: ccjason@us.ibm.com

T. Chihaya
DataChannel, Inc.
155 108th Ave. N.E., Suite 400
Bellevue, WA 98004
Email: Tyson@DataChannel.com

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27 Appendices

27.1 Appendix 1: Extensions to the WebDAV Document Type Definition

<!--============= XML Elements from Section 16 ================-->
<!ELEMENT redirectref EMPTY >
<!--============= Property Elements from Section 15 =================-->
<!ELEMENT reftarget href>
<!ELEMENT location href>
<!--====== Changes to the DAV:response Element from Section 17 ====-->
<!ELEMENT response (href, ((href*, status, prop?) | (propstat+)), 
responsedescription?) >

Expires February 20, 2000

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