Methods

A method alias indicates those HTTP methods that are considered the same for permission purposes. The default methods are GET and PUT. Several aliases for these methods are also defined:

This Alias:	Is Mapped to This Method:
BROWSE	PUT
HEAD	GET
POST	GET
MKDIR	PUT
DELETE	PUT

The methods POST, HEAD, and GET are considered equivalent. A user with GET permission also has permission to submit information on a form and get header information.

The BROWSE, MKDIR, DELETE, and PUT methods are also considered equivalent. For example, a user with PUT permission on a directory also has permission to view a directory, create a directory, or delete a directory. AOLpress sends requests for permission checks to AOLserver in the following situations:

Method	Situations Where Method is Requested
BROWSE	when a list of URLs is needed. AOLpress also uses BROWSE to build the file chooser dialog box for an AOLserver
DELETE	when deleting an URL or directory
GET	when an URL is requested
HEAD	when header information for the URL is needed (used by AOLpress before every PUT)
MKDIR	when creating a directory or MiniWeb
POST	when submitting information on a form
PUT	when writing an URL to the server

You can add new methods, add new method aliases, or delete existing method aliases. Note that if you delete one of the pre-existing aliases listed above, permission to perform the operation associated with the method alias will be denied to everyone.

Define a Method or Method Alias

If you want to define a new method, you need to decide if you want it to be considered equivalent to one of the default methods (GET or PUT) for purposes of permissions. For example, in a Tcl script, you could register an URL to a method called CHECK. If you want everyone with GET access to also have CHECK access, you would define a method alias equating CHECK with GET.

If you want to give CHECK access to users completely independent of GET or PUT access, you would define the CHECK method and not equate it with any other method. You must then manually enter permission records granting users CHECK access, because no one will have CHECK access by default.

1. From a Page window in AOLpress, choose the Tools Administer Server menu item. Choose your server from the server selection dialog that appears. If it is not listed, type in http:// followed by the name of the host where the server is running. A page containing links to several server functions appears. If you are using another browser, go to the /NS/Admin page on your server.

2. Follow the Access Control link on the AOLserver administration page.

3. In the Methods section, follow the Add a new method link.

4. In the Method Name field, type in the name of the new method. For example, to define an alias for GET called LOOK, type LOOK in the Method Name field.

5. In the Method maps to selection box, select the name of the default method that the alias is equivalent to. For the example in the previous step, select GET. If the new method will not be equivalent to any other method, do not select anything.
   

6. Click Add Method to add the method.

Delete a Method Alias

Choose the Tools Administer Server menu item and follow the Access Control link. To delete a method alias, follow the Delete a method link on the Access Control page. By default, only the nsadmin user or others users in the system group may delete a method alias.

1. From a Page window in AOLpress, choose the Tools Administer Server menu item. Choose your server from the server selection dialog that appears. If it is not listed, type in http:// followed by the name of the host where the server is running. A page containing links to several server functions appears. If you are using another browser, go to the /NS/Admin page on your server.

2. Follow the Access Control link on the AOLserver administration page.

3. In the Methods section, follow the Delete a method link.

4. Select the method alias you want to delete by selecting the alias from the Method Name selection box. An update form for the method appears.

5. Click Delete to delete the method alias.

Show and Update Method Aliases

There are two ways to show method aliases from the Access Control page. (You can get to the Access Control page by choosing the Tools Administer Server menu item and following the Access Control link.)

• Follow the Show a method link in the Methods section. A Show Method page appears, and you can select the method you want to look at based on the method alias.

• Follow the Show all methods link in the Methods section. A page appears containing links to all of the AOLserver method aliases. Follow the link to the method alias you want to look at.

Once you have selected the method alias you want in one of the above ways, an Update Method page appears containing the method alias. You can change the method alias and click Update, or you can delete the method alias by clicking Delete.