Web Versioning and Configuration Management (deltav)
----------------------------------------------------
Charter
Last Modified: 2002-03-10
Current Status: Concluded Working Group
Chair(s):
Jim Amsden <jamsden@us.ibm.com>
Applications Area Director(s):
Ned Freed <ned.freed@mrochek.com>
Patrik Faltstrom <paf@cisco.com>
Applications Area Advisor:
Ned Freed <ned.freed@mrochek.com>
Mailing Lists:
General Discussion:ietf-dav-versioning@w3.org
To Subscribe: ietf-dav-versioning-request@w3.org
In Body: subscribe
Archive: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/ietf-dav-versioning/
Description of Working Group:
This working group will define extensions to HTTP and the WebDAV
Distributed Authoring Protocol necessary to enable distributed Web
authoring tools to perform, in an interoperable manner, versioning and
configuration management of Web resources.
Versioning, parallel development, and configuration management are
important features for remote authoring of Web content. Version
management is concerned with tracking and accessing the history of
important states of a single Web resource, such as a stand alone Web
page. Parallel development provides additional resource availability in
multi-user, distributed environments, allowing authors the choice of
making independent changes on the same resource at the same time, later
merging together those changes. Configuration management addresses the
problems of tracking and accessing multiple interrelated resources over
time as sets of resources, not simply individual resources.
Traditionally, artifacts of software development, including code,
design, test cases, requirements, help files, and more have been a
focus of configuration management. Web sites, comprised of multiple
inter-linked resources (HTML, graphics, sound, CGI, and others), are
another important class of complex information artifacts that benefit
from the application of configuration management.
The WebDAV working group originally focused on defining version
management capabilities for remote authoring applications. However, it
has become clear that while versioning functionality alone is useful
for a range of content authoring scenarios involving one, or a small
set of resources, versioning alone is insufficient for managing larger
sets of content. Support for parallel development and simple remote
configuration management of Web resources provides needed functionality
for managing larger sets of interrelated content developed by multiple
users at different locations. A standard protocol for accesing such
services will ensure interoperability between many clients and many
servers.
A sub-group of the WebDAV working group has developed functional
requirements for versioning and configuration management of Web
content. These requirements encompass the following capabilities, which
shall be considered by this working group:
IN-SCOPE:
- Naming and accessing resource versions and configurations
- Creating new revisions of a resource
- Placing a resource under version and configuration control
- Parallel development
- History retrieval
- Differencing
- Merging of revisions and configurations
- Operations on configurations
- Mapping resource versions and configurations to the URL namespace
- Versioning support for downlevel HTTP and WebDAV clients
Further information on these objectives can be found in the document,
"Goals for Web Versioning".
NOT IN SCOPE:
HTTP server to server communication protocols
Development process management, workflow, or change request management
Versioning and configuration management via non-HTTP and WebDAV
protocols.
Implementation of functionality by non-origin proxies
Deliverables
The following documents are expected to form the final output of this
working group.
1. A goals document, which describes the high-level functional
requirements for remote versioning and configuration management,
including rationale.
2. A protocol specification, which describes new HTTP methods, headers,
request bodies, response bodies, and WebDAV properties to
implement the remote versioning and configuration management goals.
Goals and Milestones:
OCT 99 (Goals) Create final version of distributed versioning and
configuration management goals document. Submit for
approval as Informational RFC.
OCT 99 (Specification, Model) Produce revised model document, and
distributed versioning and configuration management
protocol specification. Submit both as Internet Drafts.
NOV 99 (Meeting, Specification, Model) Meet at Washington, DC IETF
and hold working group meeting to review the model document
and the distributed versioning and configuration management
protocol specification.
Done (Specification, Model, Traceability) Submit revised model
document, and distributed versioning and configuration
management protocol specification as Internet Drafts.
Submit revised traceability document as an Internet Draft.
MAR 00 (Meeting, Specification, Model) Meet at Adelaide IETF and
hold working group meeting to review the model document and
APR 00 (Specification, Model, Traceability) Submit revised model
document, distributed versioning and configuration
management protocol specification, and traceability
document as Internet Drafts. Hold working group last call
for comments on all drafts.
MAY 00 (Specification, Model, Traceabiluty) Revise model document,
distributed versioning and configuration management
specification, and traceability document based on WG last
call comments, and submit specification to the IESG for
approval as a Proposed Standard RFC, and submit the model
and traceability documents to IESG as Informational RFCs.
APR 01 Candidate DeltaV Internet Draft version 15 submitted to
IETF Application Area Directors for initial review
AUG 01 Meet at London IETF '51, address remaining protocol design
issues and feedback from initial Area Directors' review.
NOV 01 If needed based on feedback from Area Directors' review,
hold an additional DeltaV Working Group Last Call
DEC 01 Document Review for progression by Area Directors
Internet-Drafts:
No Current Internet-Drafts.
Request For Comments:
RFC Stat Published Title
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RFC3253 PS MAR 02 Versioning Extensions to WebDAV