VOSpace vs WebDAV

[Markus Demleitner]

Hi,

On Thu, May 15, 2014 at 11:16:49AM +0000, Paul Harrison wrote:
> ubiquity of this protocol and the ivo: and vos: just do not have
> the client support - if we could reinvent/reinterpret ivo: and vos:
> URNs via redirects off a central http://ivoa.net/ service URL  so
> that you could use curl to get resources, I think that it would be
> a very good thing?

I don't know about vos: yet (though my feeling is that if we can do
what we do with VOSpace using WebDAV+conventions, I'd find that
nifty), but for ivo: that central redirector (that would in principle
be trivial) won't work as there's not nearly a 1:1 relation between
ivo: and https?:  Indeed, in VOResource things work like this:

A resource (referenced by an ivo URI)
  has 0..n capabilities, each of which has
    0..n interfaces, each of which has
      0..n accessURLs

(with RegTAP, we're pushing for 1:1 between interfaces and
accessURLs, but even then we have 1:n^2 between ivo and http).

So, a simple redirector won't cut it, and frankly I think plain HTTP
(in the sense of "curl is all you need") just won't do as a Registry
client protocol, even with accept: and all the other fancy stuff.

Cheers,

     Markus