| Network Working Group | M. Nottingham |
| Internet-Draft | March 14, 2008 |
| Intended status: Informational | |
| Expires: September 15, 2008 |
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This document clarifies the status of the Link HTTP header and attempts to consolidate link relations in a single registry.¶
A means of indicating the relationships between documents on the Web has been available for some time in HTML, and was considered as a HTTP header in [RFC2068], but removed from [RFC2616], due to a lack of implementation experience.¶
There have since surfaced many cases where a means of including this information in HTTP headers has proved useful. However, because it was removed, the status of the Link header is unclear, leading some to consider minting new application-specific HTTP headers instead of reusing it.¶
This document seeks to address these shortcomings.¶
Additionally, formats other than HTML -- namely, Atom [RFC4287] -- have also defined generic linking mechanisms that are similar to those in HTML, but not identical. This document aims to reconcile these differences when such links are expressed as headers.¶
This document does not attempt to specify how an XLink [W3C.REC-xlink-20010627] might be mapped into the Link header, but does not prohibit this from being done.¶
[[ NOTE: This is a straw-man draft that is intended to give a ROUGH idea of what it would take to align and consolidate the HTML and Atom link relations into a single registry with reasonable extensibility rules. In particular; a) it changes the registry for Atom link relations, and the process for registration; b) it assigns more generic semantics to several existing link relations, both Atom and HTML; c) it changes the syntax of the Link header (in the case where extensions are present). Feedback is welcome on the ietf-http-wg@w3.org mailing list, although this is NOT a work item of the HTTPBIS WG. ]]¶
The Link entity-header field provides a means for describing a relationship between two resources, generally between that of the entity associated with the header and some other resource. An entity MAY include multiple Link values.¶
The Link header field is semantically equivalent to the <LINK> element in HTML, as well as the atom:link element in Atom [RFC4287].¶
Link = "Link" ":" #("<" URI-Reference ">"
*( ";" link-param ) )
link-param = ( ( "rel" "=" relationship )
| ( "rev" "=" relationship )
| ( "title" "=" quoted-string )
| ( link-extension ) )
link-extension = token [ "=" ( token | quoted-string ) ]
relationship = URI-Reference |
<"> URI-Reference *( SP URI-Reference) <"> )
The title parameter MAY be used to label the destination of a link such that it can be used as identification within a human-readable menu.¶
Examples of usage include:¶
Link: <http://www.cern.ch/TheBook/chapter2>; rel="Previous"
Link: <mailto:timbl@w3.org>; rev="Made"; title="Tim Berners-Lee"
The first example indicates that chapter2 is previous to this resource in a logical navigation path. The second indicates that the person responsible for making the resource available is identified by the given e-mail address.¶
Relationship values are URIs that identify the type of link. If the relationship is a relative URI, its base URI MUST be considered to be "http://www.iana.org/assignments/link-relations.html#", and the value MUST be present in the link relation registry.¶
This specification requires that the Message Header Registry entry for "Link" in HTTP [RFC3864] be updated to refer to this document.¶
Header field: Link
Applicable protocol: http
Status: standard
Author/change controller:
IETF (iesg@ietf.org)
Internet Engineering Task Force
Specification document(s):
[ this document ]
This specification is intended to update Atom to become the reference for the Link Relation registry, and clarifies its nature and use.¶
A Link relation is a way of indicating the semantics of a link. Link relations are not format-specific, and MUST NOT specify a particular format or media type that they are to be used with.¶
The security considerations of following a particular link are not determined by the link's relation type; they are determined by the specific context of the use and the media type of the response.¶
Likewise, a link relation SHOULD NOT specify what the context of its use is, although the media type of the dereferenced link may constrain how it is applied.¶
New relations MAY be registered, subject to IESG Approval, as outlined in [RFC2434]. Requests should be made by email to IANA, which will then forward the request to the IESG, requesting approval. The request should use the following template:¶
The Link Relation registry replaces the Atom Link Relation registry, using the same address with the following contents:¶
The content the Link headers is not secure, private or integrity-guaranteed, and due caution should be excercised when using it.¶
Applications that take advantage of these mechanisms should consider the attack vectors opened by automatically following, trusting, or otherwise using links gathered from HTTP headers.¶
HTML motivated the original syntax of the Link header, and many of the design decisions in this document are driven by a desire to stay compatible with these uses.¶
All of the link relations defined by HTML4 have been included in the link relation registry, so they can be used without modification. However, extension link relations work differently in HTML4 and the Link header; the former uses a document-wide "profile" URI to scope the relations, while the latter allows the use of full URIs on individual relations.¶
Therefore, when using the profile mechanism in HTML4, it is necessary to map the profiled link relations to URIs. For example, in HTML:¶
<html>
<head profile="http://example.com/profile1/">
<link rel="foo" href="/foo">
</head>
[...]
could be represented as a header like this;¶
Link: </foo>; rel="http://example.com/profile1/foo"
Furthermore, the registry defines link relations that are not part of HTML4. When such relations are used, the absolute URI form should be used; e.g.,¶
Link: </head>;
rel="http://www.iana.org/assignments/link-relations.html#current"
HTML defines link relation values as case-insensitive, while the Link header's syntax does not. Therefore, it is important to case-normalise relation values in HTML before comparing or converting them to Link headers.¶
HTML also defines several attributes on links that are not explicitly defined by the Link header. Although most of these are believed to be defunct, they can be used as link-extensions.¶
Atom conveys links in the atom:link element. When serialising an atom:link into a Link header, it is necessary to convert any IRIs to URIs, since HTTP headers cannot directly contain UTF-8.¶
Additionally, since the base URI for link relations in Link headers is fixed, extension links (i.e,. those not in the registry) MUST be serialised as absolute URIs.¶
Note also that while the Link header allows multiple relations to be associated with a single link, atom:link does not. In this case, a single Link header may map to several atom:link elements.¶
As with HTML, atom:link defines some attributes that are not explicitly mirrored in the Link header syntax, but they may also be used as link-extensions.¶
This specification lifts the definition of the Link header from RFC2068; credit for it belongs entirely to the authors of and contributors to that document. The link relation registrations themselves are sourced from several documents; see the applicable references.¶
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