[OAI-implementers] name value pair question

[Simeon Warner]

I think parameters without a value should be omitted, hence naming them
"optional arguments". This is certainly the rule followed in the examples
in the specification
http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/openarchivesprotocol.htm#ProtocolMessages

"from=" would likely be interpreted as a from date that is a null string
and thus give a badArgument error, e.g:
http://eprints.rclis.org/perl/oai2?verb=ListRecords&metadataPrefix=oai_dc&from=&to=2005-10-18
http://arxiv.org/oai2?verb=ListRecords&metadataPrefix=oai_dc&from=&to=2005-10-18
http://dspace.mit.edu/oai/request?verb=ListRecords&metadataPrefix=oai_dc&from=&to=2005-10-18
http://libeprints.open.ac.uk/perl/oai2?verb=ListRecords&metadataPrefix=oai_dc&from=&to=2005-10-18

Cheers,
Simeon


On Thu, 8 Dec 2005, Rob Tice wrote:
> Hi all
>
> I have just subscribed to the list as I was hoping to seek the opinion of
> the implementation community on an interoperability issue we are currently
> having.
>
> We are experiencing some problems based around how we submit name value
> pairs in a query and the specification of a name without a value.
>
> Take the following query
>
> ?verb=ListRecords&metadataPrefix=oai_dc&from=&to=18-10-2005
>
> We are taking the view that this is a valid query i.e. the specification of
> &from= with no value is syntactically correct.
>
> Are we correct in this assumption?
>
> Apologies if this is a trivial question.
>
> Best Regards
>
> Rob Tice
>
>
>
>
>
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