Poll for consensus on edit operations

[Andy Bierman <abierman@cisco.com>]

Hi,

I'd like people to weigh in on the attribute vs. element
issue, including the encoding details (see below).

I now agree with Juergen that it is highly undesirable
to require protocol-specific attributes in data-model
elements to implement any NETCONF protocol operation.
It is better to keep the data models as protocol independent
as possible, to avoid dependencies on specialty tools
that will limit the deployment of NETCONF.  It is better
to use more complex mechanisms (like XPath) that are likely 
be supported by general-purpose XML standards-based tools.

thanks,
Andy

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1) Specifying the start point of the edit action

If attributes are used, then the start-point is the
element containing the attribute.  If attributes are
not used, then the start point has to be specified
somehow.  This can be done in a simple manner with
the attribute (in the edit-action element) start-level="<N>"
or the more complex start-path="<Xpath-expr>" attribute.

2) Basic form of the <edit-config> operation

A) edit-actions are contained in <config>

  <edit-config>
    <target><running/></target>
    <test-option>test-then-set</test-option>
    <error-option>rollback-on-error</error-option>
    <config>
      <create>
        <foo> ... </foo>
      </create>
      <modify>
         <goo> ... </goo>
      </modify>
    </config>
  </edit-config>

B) edit-actions are contained in <edit-config>

  <edit-config>
    <target><running/></target>
    <test-option>test-then-set</test-option>
    <error-option>rollback-on-error</error-option>
    <create>
      <foo> ... </foo>
    </create>
    <modify>
       <goo> ... </goo>
    </modify>
  </edit-config>

C) multiple <config> sections allowed, each with a verb
   and a start-level; This avoids the need for Xpath
   support completely, since an action could appear
   more than once (<config> maxOccurs="unbounded")

  <edit-config>
    <target><running/></target>
    <test-option>test-then-set</test-option>
    <error-option>rollback-on-error</error-option>
    <config operation="create">
      <foo> ... </foo>
    </config>
    <config operation="modify">
       <goo> ... </goo>
    </modify>
  </edit-config>

D) edit-actions as operation attributes (current approach)

  <edit-config>
    <target><running/></target>
    <test-option>test-then-set</test-option>
    <error-option>rollback-on-error</error-option>
    <config>
      <foo operation="create"> ... </foo>
      <goo operation="modify"> ... </goo>>
    </config>
  </edit-config>


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