Network Working Group E. Wilde
Internet-Draft EMC
Intended status: Informational June 11, 2013
Expires: December 13, 2013
Home Documents for HTTP Services: XML Syntax
draft-wilde-home-xml-01
Abstract
The current draft for HTTP Home Documents provides a JSON syntax
only. This draft provides an XML syntax for the same underlying data
model, so that the concept of HTTP Home Documents can be consistently
exposed in both JSON- and XML-based HTTP services.
Note to Readers
Please discuss this draft on the apps-discuss mailing list [7].
Online access to all versions and files is available on github [8].
Status of this Memo
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
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This Internet-Draft will expire on December 13, 2013.
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carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. XML Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. XML Schema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
4. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.1. Media Type application/home+xml . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
6. Open Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
7. Change Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
7.1. From -00 to -01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
8. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
8.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
8.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Appendix A. XML-to-HTML for Home Documents . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
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1. Introduction
An Internet Draft currently under development [1] proposes the
concept of "Home Documents for HTTP APIs" and described them as
follows:
"This document proposes a 'home document' format for non-browser HTTP
clients. [...] The goal of home documents is to serve as a starting
point for hypermedia APIs, where clients need to have an entry point,
and then can use the API by following links. Home documents thus
serve the same purpose as home pages on web sites: They are stable
entry points that provide starting points for clients with some
knowledge of the services linked from them."
While this general concept of a home document is independent of the
representation format, the current draft only defines a JSON syntax.
In order to make this concept available across representations, this
draft defines an XML syntax for the concepts defined in [1].
At this point it is undecided whether both drafts will be merged
eventually, or whether they will both be published as separate
documents. Regardless of the final publication setup, it should be
noted that this draft is only defining the XML syntax, whereas all
the concepts represented in this syntax are defined by [1].
2. XML Example
The following Home Document in XML syntax uses the same data as the
Home Document shown in Section 2 of [1]:
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GETPUTDELETEPATCHapplication/jsonapplication/patch+jsonapplication/xmlbytes
The mapping between JSON arrays and XML uses "item" elements ,
where each of those elements represents one array item. For
properties that have a single values (i.e., they are not defined as
an array of values), this value is directly contained as content in
the corresponding element.
Currently, the draft does not specify an extension model (how to
represents hints that are not specified in the draft itself), and
therefore the extension model for XML is currently undefined as well.
The XML syntax will be updated to reflect the extension model once it
has been specified for the JSON syntax.
3. XML Schema
The following XML Schema is describing the XML shown in Section 2.
Since there currently is no extension model, the XML Schema does
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currently not contain any extension points.
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4. IANA Considerations
This specification registers a media type for the XML syntax of Home
Documents (as defined in [1]).
4.1. Media Type application/home+xml
The Internet media type [2] for a Home Document in XML syntax is
application/home+xml.
Type name: application
Subtype name: home+xml
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Required parameters: none
Optional parameters: Same as charset parameter for the media type
"application/xml" as specified in RFC 3023 [3].
Encoding considerations: Same as encoding considerations of media
type "application/xml" as specified in RFC 3023 [3].
Security considerations: This media type has all of the security
considerations described in RFC 3023 [3] and [1].
Interoperability considerations: N/A
Published specification: RFC XXXX
Applications that use this media type: Applications that publish Home
Documents for HTTP services using XML syntax.
Additional information:
Magic number(s): N/A
File extension(s): XML documents should use ".xml" as the file
extension.
Macintosh file type code(s): TEXT
Person & email address to contact for further information: Erik Wilde
Intended usage: COMMON
Restrictions on usage: none
Author: Erik Wilde
Change controller: IETF
5. Security Considerations
The general security considerations for XML home documents are the
same as those for JSON home documents, as described in the "Security
Considerations" of [1]. The specific security considerations
introduced by XML as a representation format are described in the
"Security Considerations" of Section 4.1.
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6. Open Issues
o The move from a predefined list of hints to a hint registry is not
yet reflected in the XML; in particular because the latest draft
defines the hint data model to be JSON-specific.
o What is the extension model for the XML syntax? Should processing
of other namespaces be defined as "should ignore", so that same-
namespace extensions are encouraged?
o Should the XML syntax provide support for embedded human-readable
documentation? This would probably not be supported in the JSON
syntax, but could be marked as strictly optional and XML-specific.
7. Change Log
Note to RFC Editor: Please remove this section before publication.
7.1. From -00 to -01
o Updated references from draft-nottingham-json-home-02 to
draft-nottingham-json-home-03
o Added "Security Considerations" section.
o Added XSLT for transforming an XML Home Document to a simple HTML
representation.
8. References
8.1. Normative References
[1] Nottingham, M., "Home Documents for HTTP APIs",
draft-nottingham-json-home-03 (work in progress), May 2013.
[2] Freed, N., Klensin, J., and T. Hansen, "Media Type
Specifications and Registration Procedures", BCP 13, RFC 6838,
January 2013.
[3] Murata, M., St. Laurent, S., and D. Kohn, "XML Media Types",
RFC 3023, January 2001.
[4] Sperberg-McQueen, C., Yergeau, F., Paoli, J., Maler, E., and T.
Bray, "Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth Edition)",
World Wide Web Consortium Recommendation REC-xml-20081126,
November 2008, .
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8.2. Informative References
[5] Clark, J., "XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 1.0", World Wide
Web Consortium Recommendation REC-xslt-19991116, November 1999,
.
[6] Pieters, S., Clark, J., and H. Thompson, "Associating Style
Sheets with XML documents 1.0 (Second Edition)", World Wide Web
Consortium Recommendation REC-xml-stylesheet-20101028,
October 2010,
.
URIs
[7]
[8]
Appendix A. XML-to-HTML for Home Documents
The following XSLT 1.0 stylesheet [5] transforms XML Home Documents
to very simple HTML renditions. By associating this stylesheet [6]
with an XML Home Document, it is possible to serve XML Home Documents
that will be rendered in a human-friendly way when viewed in a
browser.
Home Document
Home Document
:
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Variables:
:
Hints:
: ,
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Author's Address
Erik Wilde
EMC
6801 Koll Center Parkway
Pleasanton, CA 94566
U.S.A.
Phone: +1-925-6006244
Email: erik.wilde@emc.com
URI: http://dret.net/netdret/
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