Date:         Mon, 12 Nov 2001 12:07:35 +0100
Reply-To:     "Z39.50 Next-Generation Initiative" <[log in to unmask]>
Sender:       "Z39.50 Next-Generation Initiative" <[log in to unmask]>
From:         Theo van Veen <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      record numbers
Comments: To: [log in to unmask]
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

The way SRW will be used is probably not only by gateways but also by ordinary web-pages with local stylesheets. That  happens to be the way I am testing our server. In such cases it is extremely usefull when the client does not have to keep session context between succeeding pages. It makes the interaction between client and server much more robust and simple. One of the tags that would be convenient in this respect is a record number at each record. In a previous mail I also mentioned the possibility of having the original query as part of the session context. 
In our implementation we also return unkown url-parameters as xml-tags in the container-tag <unknown>. This allows applications (in fact these applications are simple web-pages) to create their own session context without adding complexity to the server and at the same it serves as some kind of diagnostic for faulty parameter names.

Theo