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URI Fragment Identifiers for the text/csv Media Type
draft-hausenblas-csv-fragment-04

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 7111.
Authors Michael Hausenblas , Erik Wilde , Jeni Tennison
Last updated 2013-07-02
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draft-hausenblas-csv-fragment-04
Network Working Group                                      M. Hausenblas
Internet-Draft                                          DERI, NUI Galway
Updates: 4180 (if approved)                                     E. Wilde
Intended status: Informational                           EMC Corporation
Expires: January 3, 2014                                     J. Tennison
                                                     Open Data Institute
                                                            July 2, 2013

          URI Fragment Identifiers for the text/csv Media Type
                    draft-hausenblas-csv-fragment-04

Abstract

   This memo defines URI fragment identifiers for text/csv MIME
   entities.  These fragment identifiers make it possible to refer to
   parts of a text/csv MIME entity, identified by row, column, or cell.
   Fragment identification can use single items, or ranges.

Note to Readers

   This draft should be discussed on the apps-discuss mailing list [11].

   Online access to all versions and files is available on github [12].

Status of this Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on January 3, 2014.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2013 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal

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   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
     1.1.  What is text/csv?  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
     1.2.  Why text/csv Fragment Identifiers? . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
       1.2.1.  Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
       1.2.2.  Use Cases  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     1.3.  Incremental Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     1.4.  Notation Used in this Memo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   2.  Fragment Identification Methods  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     2.1.  Row-based selection  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     2.2.  Column-based selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     2.3.  Cell-based selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     2.4.  Multi-Selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   3.  Fragment Identification Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
   4.  Fragment Identifier Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     4.1.  Syntax Errors in Fragment Identifiers  . . . . . . . . . .  7
     4.2.  Semantics of Fragment Identifiers  . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
   5.  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   6.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
   7.  Implementation Status  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   8.  Change Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     8.1.  From -03 to -04  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     8.2.  From -02 to -03  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     8.3.  From -01 to -02  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     8.4.  From -00 to -01  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   9.  References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     9.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     9.2.  Non-Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
   Appendix A.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
   Authors' Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

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1.  Introduction

   This memo updates the text/csv media type defined in RFC 4180 [1] by
   defining URI fragment identifiers for text/csv MIME entities.

   This section gives an introduction to the general concepts of text/
   csv MIME entities and URI fragment identifiers, and discusses the
   need for fragment identifiers for text/csv and deployment issues.
   Section 2 discusses the principles and methods on which this memo is
   based.  Section 3 defines the syntax, and Section 4 discusses
   processing of text/csv fragment identifiers.

1.1.  What is text/csv?

   Internet Media Types (often referred to as "MIME types") as defined
   in RFC 2045 [2] and RFC 2046 [3] are used to identify different types
   and sub-types of media.  The text/csv media type is defined in RFC
   4180 [1], using US-ASCII [8] as the default character encoding (other
   character encodings can be used as well).  Apart from a media type
   parameter for specifying the character encoding ("charset"), there is
   a second media type parameter ("header") that indicates whether there
   is a header row in the CSV document or not.

1.2.  Why text/csv Fragment Identifiers?

   URIs are the identification mechanism for resources on the Web. The
   URI syntax specified in RFC 3986 [4] optionally includes a so-called
   "fragment identifier", separated by a number sign ("#").  The
   fragment identifier consists of additional reference information to
   be interpreted by the client after the retrieval action has been
   successfully completed.  The semantics of a fragment identifier is a
   property of the media type resulting from a retrieval action,
   regardless of the URI scheme used in the URI reference.  Therefore,
   the format and interpretation of fragment identifiers is dependent on
   the media type of the retrieval result.

1.2.1.  Motivation

   Similar to the motivation in RFC 5147 [9], which defines fragment
   identifiers for plain text files, referring to specific parts of a
   resource can be very useful, because it enables users and
   applications to create more specific references.  Users can create
   references to the part they really are interested in or want to talk
   about, rather than always pointing to a complete resource.  Even
   though it is suggested that fragment identification methods are
   specified in a media type's registration (see [10]), many media types
   do not have fragment identification methods associated with them.

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   Fragment identifiers are only useful if supported by the client,
   because they are only interpreted by the client.  Therefore, a new
   fragment identification method will require some time to be adopted
   by clients, and older clients will not support it.  However, because
   the URI still works even if the fragment identifier is not supported
   (the resource is retrieved, but the fragment identifier is not
   interpreted), rapid adoption is not highly critical to ensure the
   success of a new fragment identification method.

1.2.2.  Use Cases

   Fragment identifiers for text/csv as defined in this memo make it
   possible to refer to specific parts of a text/csv MIME entity.  Use
   cases include, but are not limited to, selecting a part for visual
   rendering, stream processing, making assertions about a certain value
   (provenance, confidence, comments, etc.), or data integration.

1.3.  Incremental Deployment

   As long as text/csv fragment identifiers are not supported
   universally, it is important to consider the implications of
   incremental deployment.  Clients (for example, Web browsers) not
   supporting the text/csv fragment identifier described in this memo
   will work with URI references to text/csv MIME entities, but they
   will fail to understand the identification of the sub-resource
   specified by the fragment identifier, and thus will behave as if the
   complete resource was referenced.  This is a reasonable fallback
   behavior, and in general users should take into account the
   possibility that a program interpreting a given URI will fail to
   interpret the fragment identifier part.  Since fragment identifier
   evaluation is local to the client (and happens after retrieving the
   MIME entity), there is no reliable way for a server to determine
   whether a requesting client is using a URI containing a fragment
   identifier.

1.4.  Notation Used in this Memo

   The capitalized key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL",
   "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
   "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC
   2119 [5].

2.  Fragment Identification Methods

   This memo specifies fragment identification using following methods:
   "row" for row selections, "col" for columns selections, and "cell"
   for cell selections.

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   Throughout the sections below, the following example table in CSV
   (having 7 rows, including one header row, and 3 columns) is used:
   date,temperature,place
   2011-01-01,1,Galway
   2011-01-02,-1,Galway
   2011-01-03,0,Galway
   2011-01-01,6,Berkeley
   2011-01-02,8,Berkeley
   2011-01-03,5,Berkeley

2.1.  Row-based selection

   To select a specific record, the "row" scheme followed by a single
   number is used (the first row is at position 1).
   http://example.com/data.csv#row=4

   The above CSV fragment identifies the fourth row:
   2011-01-03,0,Galway

   Fragments can also select ranges of rows:
   http://example.com/data.csv#row=5-7

   The above CSV fragment identifies three consecutive rows:
   2011-01-01,6,Berkeley
   2011-01-02,8,Berkeley
   2011-01-03,5,Berkeley

   The value "*" can be used to indicate the last row, so the previous
   URI is equivalent to:
   http://example.com/data.csv#row=5-*

2.2.  Column-based selection

   To select values from a certain column, the "col" scheme is used,
   followed by a position (the first column is at position 1):
   http://example.com/data.csv#col=2

   The above CSV fragment addresses the second column, identifying the
   column:
   temperature
   1
   -1
   0
   6
   8
   5

   The "col" scheme can also be used to identify ranges of columns:

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   http://example.com/data.csv#col=1-2

   The above CSV fragment addresses the first and second column:
   date,temperature
   2011-01-01,1
   2011-01-02,-1
   2011-01-03,0
   2011-01-01,6
   2011-01-02,8
   2011-01-03,5

   As for rows, the value "*" can be used to indicate the last column.

2.3.  Cell-based selection

   To select particular fields, the "cell" scheme is used, followed by a
   row number, a comma, and a column number.
   http://example.com/data.csv#cell=4,1

   The above CSV fragment addresses the field in the first column within
   the fourth row, yielding:
   2011-01-03

   It is also possible to select cell-based fragments that have more
   than just one cell, in which case the cell selection uses the same
   range syntax as for row and column range selections.  For these
   selections, the syntax uses the upper-lefthand cell as the starting
   point of the selection, followed by a minus sign, and then the lower-
   righthand cell as the end point of the selection.
   http://example.com/data.csv#cell=4,1-6,2

   The above CSV fragment selects a region that starts at the fourth row
   and the first column, and ends at the sixth row and the second
   column:
   2011-01-03,0
   2011-01-01,6
   2011-01-02,8

2.4.  Multi-Selections

   Row, column, and cell selections can make more than one selection, in
   which case the individual selections are separated by semicolons.  In
   these cases, the resulting fragment may be a disjoint fragment, such
   as the selection "#row=3;6" for the example CSV, which would select
   the third and the sixth row.  It is up to the user agent to decide
   how to handle disjoint fragments, but since they are allowed, user
   agents should be prepared to handle disjoint fragments.

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3.  Fragment Identification Syntax

   The syntax for the text/csv fragment identifiers is as follows.

   The following syntax definition uses ABNF as defined in RFC 4234 [6],
   including the rule DIGIT.

   NOTE:  In the descriptions that follow, specified text values MUST be
      used exactly as given, using exactly the indicated lower-case
      letters.  In this respect, the ABNF usage differs from [6].

   csv-fragment =  rowsel / colsel / cellsel
   rowsel       =  "row=" singlespec 0*( ";" singlespec)
   colsel       =  "col=" singlespec 0*( ";" singlespec)
   cellsel      =  "cell=" cellspec 0*( ";" cellspec)
   singlespec   =  position [ "-" position ]
   cellspec     =  cellrow "," cellcol [ "-" cellrow "," cellcol ]
   cellrow      =  position
   cellcol      =  position
   position     =  number / "*"
   number       =  1*( DIGIT )

4.  Fragment Identifier Processing

   Applications implementing support for the mechanism described in this
   memo MUST behave as described in the following sections.

4.1.  Syntax Errors in Fragment Identifiers

   If a fragment identifier contains a syntax error (i.e., does not
   conform to the syntax specified in Section 3), then it MUST be
   ignored by clients.  Clients MUST NOT make any attempt to correct or
   guess fragment identifiers.  Syntax errors MAY be reported by
   clients.

4.2.  Semantics of Fragment Identifiers

   Rows and columns in CSV are counted from one.  Positions thus refer
   to the rows and columns starting from position 1, which identifies
   the first row or column of a CSV.  The special character "*" can be
   used to refer to the last row or column of a CSV, thus allowing
   fragment identifiers to easily identify ranges that extend to the
   last row or column.

   If single selections refer to non-existing rows or columns (i.e.,
   beyond the size of of the CSV), they MUST be ignored.

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   If ranges extend beyond the size of the CSV (by extending to rows or
   columns beyond the size of the CSV), they MUST be interpreted to only
   extend to the actual size of the CSV.

   If selections of ranges of rows or columns or selections of cell
   ranges are specified in a way so that they select "inversely" (i.e.,
   "#row=10-5" or "#cell=10,10-5,5"), they MUST be ignored.

   Each specification of an identified region is processed
   independently, and ignored specifications (because of reason listed
   in the previous paragraphs) do not cause the whole fragment
   identifier to fail, they just mean that this single specification is
   ignored.  For the example file, the fragment identifier "#row=1-2;5-
   4;13-16" does identify the first two rows: the second specification
   is an "inverse" specification and thus is ignored, and the third
   specification targets rows beyond the actual size of the CSV and thus
   is also ignored.

   The complete fragment identifier identifies all the successfully
   evaluated identified parts as a single identified fragment.  This
   fragment can be disjoint because of multiple selections.  Multiple
   selections also can result in overlapping individual parts, and it is
   up to the user agent how to process such a fragment, and whether the
   individual parts are still made accessible (i.e., visualized in
   visual user agents), or are presented as one unit.  For example, the
   fragment identifier "#row=3-6;4-5" contains a second identified part
   that is completely contained in the first identified part.  Whether a
   user agent maintains this selection as two parts, or simply signals
   that the identified fragment spans from the third to the sixth row,
   is up for the user agent to decide.

5.  IANA Considerations

   Note to RFC Editor: Please change this section to read as follows
   after the IANA action has been completed: "IANA has added a reference
   to this specification in the text/csv Media Type registration."

   IANA is requested to update the registration of the MIME Media type
   text/csv at http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/text/ with
   the fragment identifier defined in this memo by adding a reference to
   this memo (with the appropriate RFC number once it is known).

6.  Security Considerations

   The fact that software implementing fragment identifiers for CSV and
   software not implementing them differs in behavior, and the fact that

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   different software may show documents or fragments to users in
   different ways, can lead to misunderstandings on the part of users.
   Such misunderstandings might be exploited in a way similar to
   spoofing or phishing.

   Implementers and users of fragment identifiers for CSV text should
   also be aware of the security considerations in RFC 3986 [4] and RFC
   3987 [7].

7.  Implementation Status

   Note to RFC Editor: Please remove this section before publication.

   As explained in a draft currently under development
   <http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-sheffer-running-code>, this section
   contains information about implementation status, so that reviews of
   the draft document can take implementation reports into account as
   well.  If you are implementing this draft, please contact this
   draft's authors.  Any implementation status reports are intended for
   draft publications only; the section will be removed when the draft
   is published in RFC form.

8.  Change Log

   Note to RFC Editor: Please remove this section before publication.

8.1.  From -03 to -04

   o  Switched category from "std" to "info".

   o  Changed the definition of positions to start counting from 1
      instead of 0.

8.2.  From -02 to -03

   o  Added section on "Implementation Status" (Section 7).

   o  Added examples of ranges of rows and columns.

   o  Corrected errors in examples.

8.3.  From -01 to -02

   o  Removed slices ("#where:") as fragment identification method.

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   o  Removed any special support for headers, which means that they are
      now treated as a regular (the first) row (if a header row is
      present).

   o  Changed semantics and syntax to allow multiple selection of rows,
      columns, and cells, and to allow ranges of rows and columns.

8.4.  From -00 to -01

   o  Added cell-based selections.

   o  Added Jeni Tennison as author; updated Erik Wilde's affiliation to
      EMC.

9.  References

9.1.  Normative References

   [1]   Shafranovich, Y., "Common Format and MIME Type for Comma-
         Separated Values (CSV) Files", RFC 4180, October 2005.

   [2]   Freed, N. and N. Borenstein, "Multipurpose Internet Mail
         Extensions (MIME) Part One: Format of Internet Message Bodies",
         RFC 2045, November 1996.

   [3]   Freed, N. and N. Borenstein, "Multipurpose Internet Mail
         Extensions (MIME) Part Two: Media Types", RFC 2046,
         November 1996.

   [4]   Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform
         Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", RFC 3986,
         January 2005.

   [5]   Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
         Levels", RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [6]   Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
         Specifications: ABNF", RFC 4234, October 2005.

   [7]   Duerst, M. and M. Suignard, "Internationalized Resource
         Identifiers (IRI)", RFC 3987, January 2005.

9.2.  Non-Normative References

   [8]   ANSI X3.4-1986, "Coded Character Set - 7-Bit American National
         Standard Code for Information Interchange", STD 63, RFC 3629,
         1992.

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   [9]   Wilde, E. and M. Duerst, "URI Fragment Identifiers for the
         text/plain Media Type", RFC 5147, April 2008.

   [10]  Freed, N., Klensin, J., and T. Hansen, "Media Type
         Specifications and Registration Procedures", BCP 13, RFC 6838,
         January 2013.

URIs

   [11]  <https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/apps-discuss>

   [12]  <https://github.com/dret/I-D/tree/master/csv-fragment>

Appendix A.  Acknowledgements

   Thanks for comments and suggestions provided by Richard Cyganiak, Ian
   Davis, Leigh Dodds, and Gannon Dick.

Authors' Addresses

   Michael Hausenblas
   DERI, NUI Galway
   IDA Business Park
   Galway
   Ireland

   Phone: +353-91-495730
   Email: michael.hausenblas@deri.org
   URI:   http://sw-app.org/about.html

   Erik Wilde
   EMC Corporation
   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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   Jeni Tennison
   Open Data Institute
   65 Clifton Street
   London EC2A 4JE
   U.K.

   Phone: +44-797-4420482
   Email: jeni@jenitennison.com
   URI:   http://www.jenitennison.com/blog/

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