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Hunt 5 Expires: November 9, 2009 Opera Software, ASA. 6 May 8, 2009 8 The 'about' URI scheme 9 draft-holsten-about-uri-scheme-01 11 Status of This Memo 13 This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with the 14 provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. 16 Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering 17 Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that 18 other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet- 19 Drafts. 21 Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months 22 and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any 23 time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference 24 material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." 26 The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at 27 http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt. 29 The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at 30 http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. 32 This Internet-Draft will expire on November 9, 2009. 34 Copyright Notice 36 Copyright (c) 2009 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the 37 document authors. All rights reserved. 39 This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal 40 Provisions Relating to IETF Documents in effect on the date of 41 publication of this document (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info). 42 Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights 43 and restrictions with respect to this document. 45 Abstract 47 This document specifies the URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) scheme 48 "about". About URIs are designed to be an internal, application- 49 level identifier. Unlike many other URI schemes, the resolution of, 50 and resources represented by, about URIs are left entirely to each 51 individual application. 53 1. Editorial Note (To be removed by RFC Editor) 55 Discussion of this draft should take place on the URI Review mailing 56 list (uri-review@ietf.org). 58 2. Introduction 60 An about URI is designed to be used internally by applications for 61 almost any desired purpose. Such URIs have commonly been used by web 62 browsers for providing access to built-in functionality, such as 63 application information, preferences, settings, or "easter eggs". 65 While any number of existing schemes could be used to identify such 66 resources, about URIs have become the de facto standard. Browsers 67 already use the about scheme. The about:blank (Section 4.1) URI is 68 ubiquitous, and some browsers also provide other resources with the 69 about scheme, including those in Section 4.2. 71 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", 72 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this 73 document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119]. 75 3. URI Syntax 77 The general syntax of a about URI, in ABNF [RFC5234] is: 79 abouturi = "about:" segment [ "?" query ] [ "#" fragment ] 81 where "segment", "query", and "fragment" are imported from [RFC3986]. 83 In the interests of tractability to humans, about URIs SHOULD NOT be 84 minted with percent-encoded parts. However, the about URI syntax 85 does allow percent-encoded characters in the "pchar" elements defined 86 in [RFC3986]. 88 No relative URI syntax is defined. 90 4. Resolving About URIs 92 In general, applications are free to resolve any about URI to any 93 resource, either internal or external, or redirect to an alternative 94 URI, with about:blank being the only exception. 96 As about URIs are designed to be internal to each application, there 97 is no expectation of any URI, except about:blank, returning the same 98 resource among different applications. However, it is worth noting 99 that some conventions have arisen for providing particular 100 functionality via common about URIs. 102 Because about URIs identify application specific information, 103 applications SHOULD NOT need to retrieve remote information for such 104 a resource. 106 The about:blank URI is the only about URI reserved by this 107 specification. 109 4.1. about:blank 111 Applications resolving this URI MUST return an empty resource, with 112 the media type "text/html" and the character encoding "UTF-8". 114 4.2. Examples 116 The following examples illustrate some known URIs supported by 117 existing applications. They are not guaranteed to be resolvable by 118 every application. 120 about:config Commonly provides access to application preferences and 121 settings 123 about:cache Commonly provides access to information about resources 124 stored in the browsers cache. 126 about:plugins Commonly provides access to information about 127 installed plugins 129 about:mozilla An easter egg supported by Mozilla showing a passage 130 from the fictional Book of Mozilla 132 Applications are also permitted to redirect such URIs. For example, 133 Opera redirects all about: URIs, with the exception of about:blank, 134 to the equivalent URI using their internal opera: scheme. e.g. about: 135 config redirects to opera:config. 137 This is not an exhaustive list. Many more are supported by numerous 138 applications. For more examples, consult Wikipedia's entry on the 139 "about: URI Scheme" [wikiabout]. 141 5. Security Considerations 143 About URIs SHOULD NOT cause the application to modify any data. 144 Applications SHOULD NOT use about URIs to access or erase files or 145 other sensitive information. 147 About URIs MAY identify resources which show sensitive information. 148 Applications SHOULD ensure appropriate restrictions are in place to 149 protect such information from access or modification by untrusted 150 sources. 152 The HTML representation of the URI about:blank MUST use the origin 153 and the effective script origin as defined by HTML5 Section 5.4 154 Origin [W3C.WD-html5]. The origin of the about:blank Document is set 155 when the Document is created. If the new browsing context has a 156 creator browsing context, then the origin of the about:blank Document 157 is the origin of the creator Document. Otherwise, the origin of the 158 about:blank Document is a globally unique identifier assigned when 159 the new browsing context is created. 161 6. IANA Considerations 163 This specification requests the IANA permanently register the about 164 URI scheme as specified in this document and summarized in the 165 following template, per [RFC4395]: 167 URI scheme name: about 169 Status: Provisional 171 URI scheme syntax: See Section 3 173 URI scheme semantics: See Section 2 175 Encoding considerations: Percent-encoding is allowed in 'segment' 176 components (see Section 3) 178 Intended usage: See Section 2 180 Applications and/or protocols that use this URI scheme name: Any 181 applications that use URIs as identifiers for private resources, 182 such as web browsers. 184 Interoperability considerations: Applications are only required to 185 support about:blank, and may choose to interpret other about URIs 186 differently. 188 Security considerations: See Section 5 189 Relevant publications: None 191 Contact: Joseph Holsten (joseph@josephholsten.com) 193 Author/Change controller: Joseph Holsten 195 7. Acknowledgements 197 This document was made possible thanks to the input of Henri Sivonen, 198 Ian Hickson and Larry Masinter. 200 8. References 202 8.1. Normative References 204 [RFC3986] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, 205 "Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", 206 STD 66, RFC 3986, January 2005. 208 [RFC5234] Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax 209 Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234, 210 January 2008. 212 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate 213 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. 215 [W3C.WD-html5] Hickson, I. and D. Hyatt, "HTML 5", World Wide Web 216 Consortium TR html5, February 2009, 217 . 219 8.2. Informative References 221 [RFC4395] Hansen, T., Hardie, T., and L. Masinter, "Guidelines 222 and Registration Procedures for New URI Schemes", 223 BCP 35, RFC 4395, February 2006. 225 [wikiabout] Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, "About: URI 226 scheme", March 2009. 228 Authors' Addresses 230 Joseph Anthony Pasquale Holsten 232 EMail: joseph@josephholsten.com 233 URI: http://josephholsten.com 234 Lachlan Hunt 235 Opera Software, ASA. 237 EMail: lachlan.hunt@lachy.id.au 238 URI: http://lachy.id.au/