If you're not using any sort of standard request protocol, I'm not sure it matters to use a standardized response protocol.

I mean, you could wrap the answer in a JSON string (which would give you a little more flexibility as far as error conditions, etc. as well as typing the integer), but, since this seems to be an internal thing (is that right?) it's completely at your discretion as to how it should work.

-Ross.

On Mar 21, 2012, at 11:31 AM, Walter Lewis wrote:

> In the various bundles of good ideas that represent result set
> "standards" in the library and greater world, apart from the
> atom/opensearch <totalResults> element, is there an expectation of how
> one should package a number when that is *all* that is being
> requested?
> 
> Use Case:
>  dear dataset:
>       if I asked you for "steamboat" records, how many would you send me?
>           signed:  curious
> 
>  dear curious:
>      12
>        signed: dataset
> 
> I'm inclined to return just the number as Content-Type: text/plain.
> 
> Clearly the semantics of the query string require a mutual
> understanding, but that's not my specific concern here.
> 
> Walter