Changeset 1257 for draft-ietf-httpbis/latest/p2-semantics.html

Timestamp:

04/04/11 14:46:15 (10 years ago)

Author:

fielding@…

Message:

editorial: rephrase definition of the 204 No Content status code
to be (hopefully) clearer about server expectations rather than a
SHOULD requirement on a specific UI.

File:

• draft-ietf-httpbis/latest/p2-semantics.html (modified) (6 diffs)

draft-ietf-httpbis/latest/p2-semantics.html

@@ -359 +359 @@
   } 
   @bottom-center {
-       content: "Expires October 5, 2011"; 
+       content: "Expires October 6, 2011"; 
   } 
   @bottom-right {
@@ -409 +409 @@
       <meta name="dct.creator" content="Reschke, J. F.">
       <meta name="dct.identifier" content="urn:ietf:id:draft-ietf-httpbis-p2-semantics-latest">
-      <meta name="dct.issued" scheme="ISO8601" content="2011-04-03">
+      <meta name="dct.issued" scheme="ISO8601" content="2011-04-04">
       <meta name="dct.replaces" content="urn:ietf:rfc:2616">
       <meta name="dct.abstract" content="The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application-level protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP has been in use by the World Wide Web global information initiative since 1990. This document is Part 2 of the seven-part specification that defines the protocol referred to as &#34;HTTP/1.1&#34; and, taken together, obsoletes RFC 2616. Part 2 defines the semantics of HTTP messages as expressed by request methods, request header fields, response status codes, and response header fields.">
@@ -440 +440 @@
             </tr>
             <tr>
-               <td class="left">Expires: October 5, 2011</td>
+               <td class="left">Expires: October 6, 2011</td>
                <td class="right">HP</td>
             </tr>
@@ -493 +493 @@
             <tr>
                <td class="left"></td>
-               <td class="right">April 3, 2011</td>
+               <td class="right">April 4, 2011</td>
             </tr>
          </tbody>
@@ -520 +520 @@
          in progress”.
       </p>
-      <p>This Internet-Draft will expire on October 5, 2011.</p>
+      <p>This Internet-Draft will expire on October 6, 2011.</p>
       <h1><a id="rfc.copyrightnotice" href="#rfc.copyrightnotice">Copyright Notice</a></h1>
       <p>Copyright © 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved.</p>
@@ -1596 +1596 @@
       <div id="rfc.iref.s.8"></div>
       <h3 id="rfc.section.8.2.5"><a href="#rfc.section.8.2.5">8.2.5</a>&nbsp;<a id="status.204" href="#status.204">204 No Content</a></h3>
-      <p id="rfc.section.8.2.5.p.1">The server has successfully fulfilled the request, but there is no additional content to return in the response payload body.
-         The resource metadata and representation metadata in the response message's header fields refer to the target resource and
-         its current representation, respectively, after the requested action. For example, if a 204 status code is received in response
-         to a PUT and the response contains an ETag header field, then the value of that field is the current entity-tag for the representation
-         that was successfully PUT.
-      </p>
-      <p id="rfc.section.8.2.5.p.2">If the client is a user agent, it <em class="bcp14">SHOULD NOT</em> change its document view from that which caused the request to be sent. This response is primarily intended to allow input
-         for actions to take place without causing a change to the user agent's active document view, although any new or updated metadata <em class="bcp14">SHOULD</em> be applied to the document currently in the user agent's active view.
-      </p>
-      <p id="rfc.section.8.2.5.p.3">The 204 response <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> include a message-body, and thus is always terminated by the first empty line after the header fields.
+      <p id="rfc.section.8.2.5.p.1">The 204 (No Content) status code indicates that the server has successfully fulfilled the request and that there is no additional
+         content to return in the response payload body. Metadata in the response header fields refer to the target resource and its
+         current representation after the requested action.
+      </p>
+      <p id="rfc.section.8.2.5.p.2">For example, if a 204 status code is received in response to a PUT request and the response contains an ETag header field,
+         then the PUT was successful and the ETag field-value contains the entity-tag for the new representation of that target resource.
+      </p>
+      <p id="rfc.section.8.2.5.p.3">The 204 response allows a server to indicate that the action has been successfully applied to the target resource while implying
+         that the user agent <em class="bcp14">SHOULD NOT</em> traverse away from its current "document view" (if any). The server assumes that the user agent will provide some indication
+         of the success to its user, in accord with its own interface, and apply any new or updated metadata in the response to the
+         active representation. For example, a 204 status code is commonly used with document editing interfaces corresponding to a
+         "save" action, such that the document being saved remains available to the user for editing. It is also frequently used with
+         interfaces that expect automated data transfers to be prevalent, such as within distributed version control systems.
+      </p>
+      <p id="rfc.section.8.2.5.p.4">The 204 response <em class="bcp14">MUST NOT</em> include a message-body, and thus is always terminated by the first empty line after the header fields.
       </p>
       <div id="rfc.iref.29"></div>