[Ietf-caldav] Alternative to splitting out components

[Elias Sinderson]

Lisa Dusseault wrote:

> We could consider another way to accomplish the client simplicity you  
> propose at the cost of server complexity: require the server to 
> provide  *both* views.  I'm worried that this would require not only 
> more server work but also have some conflicts that we'd have to figure 
> out how to  deal with.  E.g. it doesn't really help multi-author 
> scenarios if the  single-file calendar is always being locked by slow 
> clients. 

More work, yes, but not really all that much when you think about it. 
One option would be to have the specification define (as a MUST) a 
property, P, on component resources whose value is an XML marshalling of 
the components content and properties. A live property on the main 
calendar resource would then simply scoop up all the child components 
values of P and then return a single XML document.

Leave it up to the server implementors as to how they implement P, as 
long as they return a conformant piece of XML when queried. P may be 
live (and either computed dynamically every time or cached), or dead and 
set by the server when a component is created or modified. It may take a 
bit for a client to get the whole calendar back, but when asking for an 
entire calendar perhaps that should be expected.

Further, the performance hit that a client will take when using this 
simpler approach will create a competitive edge in implementing a better 
client.  ;-)


Cheers,
Elias