MIME Encapsulation of Aggregate HTML Documents () Charter

NOTE: This charter is accurate as of the 38th IETF Meeting in Memphis, Tennessee. It may now be out-of-date.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)

Einar Stefferud <stef@nma.com>

Applications Area Director(s):

Keith Moore <moore+iesg@cs.utk.edu>
Harald Alvestrand <Harald.T.Alvestrand@uninett.no>

Area Advisor

Keith Moore <moore+iesg@cs.utk.edu>

Mailing List Information

General Discussion:mhtml@segate.sunet.se
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Description of Working Group

World Wide Web documents are written using Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). HTML is notable in that it contains "embedded content"; that is, HTML documents often contain pointers to other objects (images, external references) which are presented to the recipient. Currently, Web documents are transported almost exclusively via the interactive HTTP protocol. The MHTML working group will develop specifications to permit the transport of Web documents via Internet mail. Tasks include specification of MIME encapsulation of Web documents (the HTML document and the set of documents to which it refers) required for Internet mail as well as specification of any HTML formatting conversions that are needed to accomplish the transport of documents in such a "disconnected" environment. The working group will also produce an informational discussion about Web page formatting choices that affect their efficient use through disconnected channels.The working group intends to develop these standards in a way that maintains interoperability between separate HTTP-based systems and Internet mail systems, as well as being suitable for combined mail/HTTP browser systems.

It is beyond the scope of this working group to come up with standards for document formats other than Web documents. However, standards produced by the working group may be designed in such a way to allow other such formats to use similar strategies.

The editors of this group are: Main editor: Jacob Palme Associate editor: Alex Hopmann

Goals and Milestones

Mar 96: Clarify issues and submit first Internet-Draft.
Jun 96: Submit first Internet-Draft for MIME encapsulation of HTML.
Sep 96: Submit MHTML specification to IESG for consideration as a Proposed Standard.
Oct 96: Submit Internet-Draft for guidelines in created documents for disconnected access.
Dec 96: Submit guidelines Internet-Draft to IESG for consideration as an Informational RFC.

Current Internet-Drafts

Sending HTML in E-mail, an informational supplement to RFC ???: MIME E-mail Encapsulation of Aggregate HTML Documents (MHTML).