[Zope3-dev] Other (than GET and POST) HTTP Methods

[Shane Hathaway]

Phillip J. Eby wrote:
> At 11:10 AM 1/8/03 -0500, Shane Hathaway wrote:
> 
>> Jim Fulton wrote:
>>
>>> You can't distinguish Browser GETs from WebDAV, Amaya, or Composer GETs.
>>> You can't distinguish WebDAV PUTs from Amaya, or Composer PUTs.
>>
>>
>> That's actually a reason why you'd want to run WebDAV on a different 
>> port from normal HTTP, isn't it?
> 
> 
> No, that's why you want them on the same port.  Transparency.  The whole 
> idea behind PUT in HTTP and WebDAV is that you PUT to the same URL you 
> want to GET from.  So that you can just browse "the site" and edit it in 
> place.

I don't understand.  Data you GET via HTTP is very often dynamically 
generated.  You can't expect to edit the dynamic results, PUT your 
changes, and have the server store what you really meant to change.  So 
you must be talking about a more limited use case.

>> In special cases, you *can* distinguish WebDAV from browser GETs 
>> (using user-agent sniffing, IP address sniffing, special URLs, or 
>> custom headers),
> 
> 
> *Shudder*  Why would you *want* to?
> 
> IMO, WebDAV is *supposed* to be on the same port.  That's the whole 
> point.  It's an HTTP extension, not a replacement.

That's the intent of WebDAV, but WebDAV is flawed.  WebDAV makes no 
attempt to retrieve the real content rather than the generated content, 
so workarounds have to be devised.

Shane