The motivation behind using MIME multipart for replication was to allow a document and all its attachments to be transmitted in one go without having to do Base 64 encoding. I haven't done any work on this topic, perhaps others have. Cool stuff, though! Adam On Aug 6, 2009, at 4:52 PM, Paul Davis wrote: > Definitely some interesting points here. There have been discussions > on using multipart-mime messaging in the replication protocol which > could setup for some interesting prospects like this. I'm not sure on > specifics in terms of replication, but having an endpoint that allows > edits via multipart-mime could be a very fun thing to play with. > > Also, AFAIK there's nothing that prevents an isomorphic > representation. As you point out, couchdb-python handles everything > just fine here. > > Paul Davis > > On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 4:46 PM, Nitin Borwankar > wrote: >> Hi guys, >> >> I see that the python based dump/load uses MIME multipart docs as >> an on-disk >> serialisation format for couchdb databases. >> An overall question then arises - can CouchDB be considered a MIME >> database >> which oh also happens to talk JSON? >> So before that - is there a 1-1 strong correspondence between a >> CouchDB >> document and a MIME multipart, or are there things around the edges >> that are >> crufty - I would assume a strong correspondence since dump/load >> uses it and >> I haven't seen any caveast about document content that is not >> dumpable. >> >> So assuming the 1-1 correspondence - could one use some >> "translation layer" >> couchapp that accepts arbitrary content/type + multipart-mixed MIME >> object >> over HTTP and then transparenty serialise them to JSON underneath. >> >> Given that dump/load already does this - it would see that there >> are no >> obvious glaring flaws in this logic - but I have been known to be >> wrong, >> once :-). >> >> If this is indeed feasible - then each CouchDB + MIME-trans becomes >> a web >> mail node - and Couch begins to be the platform for a messaging >> revolution >> as well as an application revolution. I am thinking now not as >> CouchDB for >> backing up your email - but CouchDB as your mail client/server for >> p2p MIME >> based "email". >> >> Permissions etc are important to avoid complete disaster of course >> - but >> private high quality communication that just reuses existing message >> formats, with better storage and transport would seem like an idea >> whose >> time has come a long time ago and has been knocking at the door for a >> decade. >> >> Yes, yes, there's the issue of spam - so see the P.S. >> >> Just a few idle thoughts, >> >> Nitin >> >> P.S. Back in 1998 I tried to convince Sybase to have MIME as a >> native type >> in the db and it even got speced out ( I have the spec with the >> date on it! >> ) but got canned becous ethe VP of enginnering wanted to know "what >> was the >> market exactly for this kind of stuff". Other than that I was >> granted a >> patent for doing p2p discussions over email back in 2003 - I let it >> expire >> for multiple reasons. So I am somewhat non-naive about and aware >> of the >> issues and pitfalls around this sort of thinking. At the same time >> I am of >> the strong belief that when one looks at messages as data to be >> moved around >> between endpoints with well defined addressing schemes, and one >> ignores the >> protocols for a bit, then all sorts of fun things start to happen. >> >> >> 37% of all statistics are made up on the spot >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> Nitin Borwankar >> nborwankar@gmail.com >>