HyperText Transfer Protocol (http) Charter
NOTE: This charter is accurate as of the 33rd IETF Meeting in Stockholm. It
may now be out-of-date. (Consider this a "snapshot" of the working
group from that meeting.) Up-to-date charters for all active working
groups can be found elsewhere in this Web server.
Chair(s)
- Dave Raggett <dsr@w3.org>
Applications Area Director(s):
- John Klensin <Klensin@mci.net>
- Harald Alvestrand <Harald.T.Alvestrand@uninett.no>
Area Advisor
- John Klensin <Klensin@mci.net>
Mailing List Information
- General Discussion:http-wg@cuckoo.hpl.hp.com
- To Subscribe: http-wg-request@cuckoo.hpl.hp.com
- In Body: subscribe http-wg Your Full Name
- Archive: http://www.ics.uci.edu/pub/ietf/http/hypermail
Description of Working Group
Note: This working group is jointly chartered by the Applications Area
and the Transport Services Area.
The HTTP Working Group will work on the specification of the Hypertext
Transfer Protocol (HTTP). HTTP is a data access protocol currently run
over TCP and is the basis of the World-Wide Web. The initial work will
be to document existing practice and short-term extensions. Subsequent
work will be to extend and revise the protocol. Directions which have
already been mentioned include:
improved efficiency,
extended operations,
extended negotiation,
richer metainformation, and
ties with security protocols.
Note: the HTTP working group will not address HTTP security extensions
as these are expected to be the topic of another working group.
Background information
The initial specification of the HTTP protocol was kept in hypertext
form and a snapshot circulated as an Internet draft between 11/93 and
5/94. A revision of the specification by Berners-Lee, Fielding and
Frystyk Nielsen has been circulated as an Internet draft between 11/94
and 5/95. An overview of the state of the specifications and a
repository of pointers to HTTP resources may be found at
http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Protocols/Overview.html
Once established, the working group will expand and complete that
document to reflect HTTP/1.0 as it has been implemented by World-Wide
Web clients and servers prior to November 1994. The resulting
specification of HTTP/1.0 will be published for review as an
Internet-Draft and, if deemed appropriate, will be submitted to the
IESG for consideration as a Proposed Standard or Informational RFC.
In parallel with the above effort, the working group will consider
enhancements/restrictions to the current practice in order to form a
specification of the HTTP protocol suitable for eventual consideration
as a proposed standard.
Also in parallel with the above efforts, the working group will engage
in defining (or selecting from various definitions) a next-generation
protocol for hypertext transfer (HTTPng).
Goals and Milestones
- Done
- Draft working group charter. Establish mailing list and archive.
- Done
- Review draft charter for discussion at the Chicago WWWF'94 conference. Invest an interim Chair for the working group. Determine writing assignments for first draft of HTTP/1.0 document.
- Done
- Publish an Internet-Draft on HTTP as reflected by current practice (HTTP/1.0)
- Done
- Meet at the San Jose IETF as a BOF. Review HTTP/1.0 Internet-Draft and decide whether it should be published as Informational, should be a candidate for further working group development, or should be allowed to expire. Determine writing assignments for first drafts of the HTTP/1.1 or HTTPng documents. Establish charter and submit to IESG
- Feb 95
- Revise the Internet-Draft on HTTP/1.0 and, if desired, submit to the IESG for consideration under the category determined at San Jose IETF.
- Feb 95
- Publish Internet-Drafts on HTTP/1.1 and HTTPng.
- Apr 95
- Final review of HTTP/1.1 draft at the Danvers IETF. Revise HTTP/1.1 draft and submit to IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard. Review progress on HTTPng.
- Dec 95
- Final review of HTTPng draft at the Dallas IETF. Revise HTTPng draft and submit to IESG for consideration as Proposed Standard. Retrospective look at the activities of the HTTP WG.
Current Internet-Drafts
No Request for Comments