RE: Use of MIME multipart for zero payload containers

[Dale Moberg <dmoberg@cyclonecommerce.com>]

multipart-body := [preamble CRLF]
                       dash-boundary transport-padding CRLF
                       body-part *encapsulation
                       close-delimiter transport-padding
                       [CRLF epilogue]

From RFC 2046.

And from RFC 2234 (ABNF syntax)

   The operator "*" preceding an element indicates repetition. The full
   form is:

        <a>*<b>element

   where <a> and <b> are optional decimal values, indicating at least
   <a> and at most <b> occurrences of element.

   Default values are 0 and infinity so that *<element> allows any
   number, including zero; 1*<element> requires at  least  one;
   3*3<element> allows exactly 3 and 1*2<element> allows one or two.


The syntax, as I decipher it, requires one body-part but
zero or more encapsulations (which is what a second or nth
body part is called). So multiparts with just one part
are allowed.

That does not settle what do in ebxml, but there is 
nothing "wrong" with a multipart with one body part. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Weinreb [mailto:dlw@exceloncorp.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2001 6:46 AM
To: rsalz@zolera.com
Cc: david.burdett@commerceone.com; chris.ferris@sun.com;
david@drummondgroup.com; ebxml-msg@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: Re: Use of MIME multipart for zero payload containers


   Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 20:35:04 -0400
   From: Rich Salz <rsalz@zolera.com>

   It might be desired, but it's certainly NOT a simplification, since
   compliant software will now have to handle two different formats.

Actually, it seems to me that this question really ought to be decided
by the "SOAP 1.1 With Attachments" specification, since the question
of whether to use a multipart-with-one-part arises not only for ebXML
but anything else using "SOAP 1.1 With Attachments".  Unfortunately
their spec does not seem to deal with the issue, as far as I was able
to tell from looking at it.

-- Dan


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