RE: MS 021c: Content-Type: multipart/related;charset clarification,please

[Dick Brooks <dick@8760.com>]

Gait,

 

The charset parameter was removed from the ebXML message envelope, the spec needs to be updated to reflect this. The semantics of charset don't apply to multipart content types, as you indicated.

 

 

Thanks,

Dick Brooks
Group 8760
110 12th Street North
Birmingham, AL 35203
dick@8760.com
205-250-8053
Fax: 205-250-8057
http://www.8760.com/

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-----Original Message-----
From: Gait Boxman [mailto:gait.boxman@tie.nl]
Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2000 9:24 AM
To: ebxml-transport@lists.ebxml.org
Subject: MS 021c: Content-Type: multipart/related;charset clarification, please

Hi,

can someone clarify me on section 7.2.1 of Messaging Service Specification V.021c?

It says that the Content-Type header for the multipart has a charset attribute, and I'm puzzled on it's use.

Why would there be a charset specification on a multipart which can contain multiple bodyparts using different encodings and charsets?

I could think of only two reasons:

1. to specify an alternate character set for the multipart header and boundary data,

2. to specify a default character set for the contained body parts.

However, RFC 2046 states (on the bottom of page 18) that all header fields and boundary delimiters are represented in 7bit US-ASCII, which rules out reason one. Furthermore, RFC 2046 states (on the bottom of page 17/top of page 18) a the default RFC 822 content-type for bodyparts with no headers.

So far, I have found that the charset attribute is applicable for text content types, but not for multiparts.

Did I miss something in the RFC's, is there some other source I did not check. Or was it put in by accident?

 

Thanks, Gait Boxman.