2.2.1 Translate Request Header

Many resources obtained from a WebDAV server are returned exactly as-is. However, some resources are programmatically interpreted by the web server and the result of that interpretation is returned instead of the source representation. For instance, a request to retrieve an Active Server Page (ASP) (as described in [MSASP]) from the web server would return the processed HTML file rather than the actual source of the ASP page. A resource is an entity that can be identified by a URI. A resource is used as specified in [RFC2616] section 1.3.

In order for a WebDAV client to indicate the required representation, WebDAV Protocol: Server Extensions introduces a new Translate request header. This header requests that the web server perform "translation" (programmatic interpretation) of the file.

This new request header is defined as follows, using the ABNF syntax, as specified in [RFC2068] section 2.1.

 Translate-header = "Translate" ":" Translate-value
 Translate-value = "t" / "f" / "F"
  

If the Translate value is "t", the web server is to process the content before returning it to the WebDAV client; if "f" | "F", the web server is to return the unprocessed (or source) content to the WebDAV client. The values "f" and "F" are synonymous. All other values SHOULD be ignored by the web server. For more details about processing of this request header, see section 3.1.5.<1>

This request header MUST be supported on the GET verb and MAY be supported on other verbs.<2>