Re: HTTP built on a database engine

Larry Masinter (masinter@parc.xerox.com)
Fri, 25 Nov 1994 06:13:43 +0100

>>>>> On Mon, 21 Nov 1994 18:41:05 -0800, Brian Behlendorf <brian@wired.com> said:
> The key dream feature which is the link to many other dreamt-of features
> is turning a web server into a real production and publication system:

> * a real revision control system, with backwards mistake-fixing
> * documents may have many states, some of which may require that they not
> be "public", but readable (and writeable) by a particular group of users
> * publication paths can be set to require certain signatures of approval
> before being publishable (i.e. the editors and layout people sign off
> on it)
> * items on the web server are assigned abstract document identifiers, so
> inlined images can be referenced by name rather than by relative
> location, so URL's don't change even if the document's location does.
> * Upon initial submission of an object into the database, the creator is
> prompted for things like a title, an author, etc. This information is
> needed for non-HTML documents, too.

These are all properties of general document management systems, some
of which are built on database engines. However, rather than try to
retrofit web servers into document management systems, building
HTTP/web interfaces to any of the commercial document management
systems (PC Docs, Soft Solutions, Documentum, Visual Recall, Saros
Mezzanine, etc.) might be a simpler way to proceed.