Overview

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Purpose of Implementation
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Implementation Method

A service that supports updates to a portable data store implement the PATCH HTTP method. This standard provides for different patch formats to be used, specified by the MIME type of the patch request. This document proposes that the standard "MUST SUPPORT" mime type will be the XML Simple Patch Ops standard, providing a flexible method for patching XML documents without necessarily needing to know the content of the entire document, or furthermore, having the latest version of the document.
As the PATCH specification results in the addition of a new HTTP verb, which may introduce problems initially both in terms of end-server support and intermediate support, a number of fallback mechanisms can be considered:

Connection via SSL - an SSL connection tunnels through all intermediaries, and therefore negates any lack of support they may have.
Utilisation of the PUT method for whole document update. The end server may choose to ignore components of the update that are not allowed.

All of these mechanisms should be protected by the same mechanism used to protect read access to the document. This proposal recommends that OAuth be used, so as to allow for significant user control, and the continuation of open standards throughout the stack.

Selection Rationale

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Details of Adoption

Forming a vital component of the final approval process, this section should detail actual real-world implementations of this suggested method; hence showing adoption of the proposal.

Action Group Backing

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