Profile Support for the Atom Syndication Format
draft-wilde-atom-profile-00

Network Working Group                                           E. Wilde
Internet-Draft                                                       EMC
Updates: 4287 (if approved)                               March 30, 2013
Intended status: Standards Track
Expires: October 1, 2013

            Profile Support for the Atom Syndication Format
                      draft-wilde-atom-profile-00

Abstract

   The Atom syndication format is a generic XML format for representing
   collections.  Profiles are one way how Atom feeds can indicate that
   they support specific extensions.  To make this support visible on
   the media type level, this specification re-registers the Atom media
   type, and adds a "profile" media type parameter.  This allows
   profiles to become visible at the media type level, so that servers
   as well as clients can indicate support for specific Atom profiles in
   conversations, for example when communicating via HTTP.

Note to Readers

   This draft should be discussed on the atom-syntax mailing list [6].

   Online access to all versions and files is available on github [7].

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
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   This Internet-Draft will expire on October 1, 2013.

Copyright Notice

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

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

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   2.  Examples  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   3.  Profile Parameter Definition  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   4.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
     4.1.  Atom Media Type application/atom+xml  . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   5.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
     5.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
     5.2.  Non-Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

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1.  Introduction

   The Atom Syndication Format "is an XML-based document format that
   describes lists of related information known as 'feeds'.  Feeds are
   composed of a number of items, known as 'entries', each with an
   extensible set of attached metadata.  For example, each entry has a
   title."  [1]

   Profiles "can be described as additional semantics that can be used
   to process a resource representation, such as constraints,
   conventions, extensions, or any other aspects that do not alter the
   basic media type semantics.  A profile MUST NOT change the semantics
   of the resource representation when processed without profile
   knowledge, so that clients both with and without knowledge of a
   profiled resource can safely use the same representation."  [2]

   Profiles are identified by URI, and can be added to a representation
   by adding a link with the registered "profile" link relation type,
   linking to the profile URI.  While this is sufficient to represent
   the fact that a certain representation is using a profile, it does
   not make that fact visible outside of this representation.  Ideally,
   peers communicating their media type should be able to indicate the
   support of certain profiles through the media type itself, without
   changing the base media type.

   Because Atom supports generic links through its <link/> element,
   "profile" links can be easily added to a feed, indicating that this
   feed does adhere to a certain profile.  However, on the media type
   level, this feed would still be labeled as application/atom+xml,
   making the profile invisible on that level and thus not allowing it
   to be used in interactions such as content negotiation in the
   Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). [4].

   This specification adds a "profile" parameter to the application/
   atom+xml media type, thereby making it possible for profiles to be
   exposed at the media type level.  Apart from adding that one media
   type parameter, this specification does not change anything about the
   Atom format itself.

2.  Examples

   Adding a "profile" parameter to the Atom media type adds visibility
   of profiles at the media type level.  For example, when linking to
   feeds of media-oriented services, it would be possible to expose two
   feeds, one using MediaRSS, and the other using Podcasts.  Both
   formats roughly cover the same functionality as media-oriented feed-
   based extensions, but by having the ability to expose their

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   capabilities at the media type level, HTTP mechanisms and
   conversations can be used to distinguish between these formats.

   In some cases it may be possible to support more than one profile,
   and then it is up for the service to decide whether these should be
   exposed in one representation (which can be exposed by linking to
   multiple profiles from the resource representation and/or in the
   media type parameter), or whether there should be two
   representations, one for each profile.  This decision will probably
   depend on implementation complexity, the trade-off between navigation
   complexity (two representations with one profile each) and processing
   complexity, and also the size of the profile data, because in
   particular in the case of overlapping profiles, there might be many
   redundacies.

   Thus, which way to go for multiple profiles is not a question that as
   one correct answer; it depends on the profiles, and on the services
   that are built around them.

3.  Profile Parameter Definition

   The profile parameter for the application/atom+xml media type allows
   one or more profile URIs to be specified.  These profile URIs have
   the identifier semantics defined in [2], and when appearing as media
   type parameter, they have the same semantics as if they had been
   associated with the resource URI through other means, such as using
   one or more <link profile="" href=""/> element as a child of the
   <feed> element.

   Media type parameters must be quoted unless they are tokens.  For the
   "profile" media type parameter defined here, this means that is must
   be quoted, and contains a non-empty list of space-separated URI-
   encoded URIs.
   profile-param = "profile=" profile-value
   profile-value = <"> profile-URI 0*( 1*SP profile-URI ) <">
   profile-URI   = percent-encoded-URI

   When processing "mprofile" media type parameters, it is therefore
   important to apply URI-decoding before processing the URI (such as
   comparing it to known profiles).  This is particularly important
   since profile URIs in Atom content (in <link profile="" href=""/>
   links) will not be URI-encoded, and thus properly encoding and
   decoding URIs in these two location is essential to implement correct
   processing.

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4.  IANA Considerations

   The Internet media type [5] for an Atom document is application/
   atom+xml.

4.1.  Atom Media Type application/atom+xml

   This specification requests the registration of an XML-based media
   type for the eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML).

4.1.1.  Media Type Name

   application

4.1.2.  Subtype Name

   atom+xml

4.1.3.  Required Parameters

   none

4.1.4.  Optional Parameters

   charset: This parameter has semantics identical to the charset
   parameter of the "application/xml" media type as specified in [3].

   profile: This parameter indicates that one or more profiles are used
   in the feed, according to the definition of profiles in [2].  The
   parameter syntax is specified in of RFC XXXX (Section 3)

4.1.5.  Encoding Considerations

   Identical to those of "application/xml" as described in [3], Section
   3.2.

4.1.6.  Security Considerations

   As defined in [1].  In addition, as this media type uses the "+xml"
   convention, it shares the same security considerations as described
   in [3], Section 10.

4.1.7.  Interoperability Considerations

   There are no known interoperability issues.

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4.1.8.  Published Specification

   [1]

4.1.9.  Applications which use this media type

   Many.  Atom has become a common foundation for many syndication-
   oriented scenarios, and also has become a commonly used
   representation for collection contents.

4.1.10.  Magic number(s)

   As specified for "application/xml" in [3], Section 3.2.

4.1.11.  File extension(s)

   .atom

4.1.12.  Fragment Identifiers

   As specified for "application/xml" in [3], Section 5.

4.1.13.  Base URI

   As specified in [3], Section 6.

4.1.14.  Macintosh File Type Code(s)

   TEXT

4.1.15.  Person & email address to contact for further information

   Mark Nottingham <mnot@mnot.net> and Erik Wilde <erik.wilde@emc.com>

4.1.16.  Intended Usage

   Common

4.1.17.  Author/Change Controller

   IESG

5.  References

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5.1.  Normative References

   [1]  Nottingham, M., Ed. and R. Sayre, Ed., "The Atom Syndication
        Format", RFC 4287, December 2005.

   [2]  Wilde, E., "The 'profile' Link Relation Type", RFC 6906,
        March 2013.

   [3]  Murata, M., St. Laurent, S., and D. Kohn, "XML Media Types",
        RFC 3023, January 2001.

5.2.  Non-Normative References

   [4]  Fielding, R., Gettys, J., Mogul, J., Frystyk, H., Masinter, L.,
        Leach, P., and T. Berners-Lee, "Hypertext Transfer Protocol --
        HTTP/1.1", RFC 2616, June 1999.

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

URIs

   [6]  <http://www.imc.org/atom-syntax/>

   [7]  <https://github.com/dret/I-D/tree/master/atom-profile>

Author's Address

   Erik Wilde
   EMC
   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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