Thing-to-Thing Research Group                                  K. Hartke
Internet-Draft                                   Universitaet Bremen TZI
Intended status: Informational                         February 12, 2017
Expires: August 16, 2017


                     CoRE Application Descriptions
                       draft-hartke-core-apps-07

Abstract

   The interfaces of RESTful, hypermedia-driven Web applications consist
   of reusable components such as Internet media types and link relation
   types.  This document proposes CoRE Application Descriptions, a
   convention for application designers to describe the programmable
   interfaces of their applications in a structured way so that other
   parties can easily develop interoperable clients and servers or reuse
   the components in their own applications.

Note to Readers

   This Internet-Draft should be discussed on the Thing-to-Thing
   Research Group (T2TRG) mailing list <t2trg@irtf.org>
   <https://www.irtf.org/mailman/listinfo/t2trg>.

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   This Internet-Draft will expire on August 16, 2017.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2017 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
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
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   described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Application Descriptions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.1.  URI Schemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
     2.2.  Internet Media Types  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
       2.2.1.  Representation Formats  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
       2.2.2.  Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
       2.2.3.  Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
     2.3.  Link Relation Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
       2.3.1.  Template Variable Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
     2.4.  Form Relation Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
       2.4.1.  Form Field Names  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
     2.5.  Well-Known Locations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10
   3.  Application Description Template  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  11
   4.  URI Design Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13
   5.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   6.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
     6.1.  Content-Format Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
     6.2.  Link Relation Type Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
     6.3.  Form Relation Type Registry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
       6.3.1.  Registering New Form Relation Types . . . . . . . . .  15
       6.3.2.  Initial Registry Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  15
   7.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
     7.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
     7.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
   Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18
   Author's Address  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  19

1.  Introduction

   Representational State Transfer (REST) [16] is an architectural style
   for distributed hypermedia systems.  Over the years, REST has gained
   popularity not only as an approach for large-scale information
   dissemination, but also as the basic principle for designing and
   building Internet-based applications in general.





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   In the coming years, the size and scope of the Internet is expected
   to greatly increase as physical-world objects become smart enough to
   communicate over the Internet -- a phenomenon known as the Internet
   of Things (IoT).  As things learn to speak the languages of the net,
   the idea of applying REST principles to the design of IoT application
   architectures suggests itself.  To this end, the Constrained
   Application Protocol (CoAP) [24] was created, an application-layer
   protocol that enables RESTful applications in constrained-node
   networks [10], thus giving rise to a new setting for Internet-based
   applications: the Constrained RESTful Environment (CoRE).

   To realize the full benefits and advantages of the REST style, a set
   of constraints needs to be maintained when designing new applications
   and their application programming interfaces (APIs).  One of the
   fundamental principles is that "REST APIs must be hypertext-driven"
   [17].  This principle is often ignored by application designers, who
   instead specify their APIs out-of-band in terms of fixed URI
   patterns, e.g., in the API documentation or in a machine-readable
   format that facilitates code generation.  Although this approach may
   appear easy for clients to use, the fixed resource names and data
   formats lead to a tight coupling between client and server
   implementations and make the system less flexible.  Violations of
   REST design principles like this result in APIs that may not be as
   scalable, extensible, and interoperable as promised by REST [20].

   REST is intended for long-lived network-based applications that span
   multiple organizations [17].  Principled REST APIs require some
   design effort, since application designers do not only have to take
   current requirements into consideration, but also have to anticipate
   changes that may be required in the future -- years or even decades
   after the application has been deployed for the first time.  The
   reward is long-term stability and evolvability, both of which are
   very desirable features in the Internet of Things.

   To aid application designers in the design process, this document
   proposes CoRE Application Descriptions, a convention for describing
   the APIs of RESTful, hypermedia-driven Web applications.  CoRE
   Application Descriptions help application designers avoid common
   mistakes by focusing almost all of the descriptive effort on defining
   the Internet media type(s) that are used for representing resources
   and driving application state.

   A template provides a consistent format for the description of APIs
   so that implementers can easily build interoperable clients and
   servers and other application designers can reuse application
   components in their own applications.





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2.  Application Descriptions

   A CoRE Application Description is a named set of reusable components.
   It describes a contract between a server hosting an instance of the
   described application and clients that wish to interface with that
   instance.

   A CoRE Application Description is comprised of:

   o  URI schemes that identify communication protocols,

   o  Internet media types that identify representation formats,

   o  link relation types that identify link semantics,

   o  form relation types that identify form semantics,

   o  variable names that identify the semantics of variables in
      templated links,

   o  form field names that identify the semantics of form fields in
      forms, and

   o  optionally, well-known locations.

   Together, these components provide the specific, in-band instructions
   for interfacing with a given application.

2.1.  URI Schemes

   The foundation of a hypermedia-driven REST API are the communication
   protocol(s) spoken between a client and a server.  Although HTTP/1.1
   [14] is by far the most common communication protocol for REST APIs,
   a REST API should typically not be dependent on any specific
   communication protocol.

   The use of a particular protocol by a client is guided by URI schemes
   [7].  URI schemes specify the syntax and semantics of URI references
   [1] that the server includes in links (Section 2.2.2) and forms
   (Section 2.2.3).

   A URI scheme refers to a family of protocols, typically distinguished
   by a version number.  For example, the "http" URI scheme refers to
   the two members of the HTTP family of protocols: HTTP/1.1 [14] and
   HTTP/2 [8] (as well as some predecessors).  The specific HTTP version
   used is negotiated between a client and a server in-band using the
   version indicator in the HTTP request-line or the TLS Application-
   Layer Protocol Negotiation (ALPN) extension [18].



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      IANA maintains a list of registered URI schemes at
      <http://www.iana.org/assignments/uri-schemes>.

2.2.  Internet Media Types

   One of the most important aspect of hypermedia-driven communications
   is the concept of Internet media types [2].  Media types are used to
   label representations so that it is known how the representation
   should be interpreted and how it is encoded.  The centerpiece of a
   CoRE Application Description should be one or more media types.

   A media type identifies a versioned series of representation formats
   (Section 2.2.1): a media type does not identify a particular version
   of a representation format; rather, the media type identifies the
   family, and includes provisions for version indicator(s) embedded in
   the representations themselves to determine more precisely the nature
   of how the data is to be interpreted [21].  A new media type is only
   needed to designate a completely incompatible format [21].

   Note:  The terms media type and representation format are often used
      interchangeably.  In this document, the term "media type" refers
      specifically to a string of characters such as "application/xml"
      that is used to label representations; the term "representation
      format" refers to the definition of the syntax and semantics of
      representations, such as XML 1.0 [12] or XML 1.1 [13].

   Media types consist of a top-level type and a subtype, structured
   into trees [2].  Optionally, media types can have parameters.  For
   example, the media type "text/plain; charset=utf-8" is a subtype for
   plain text under the "text" top-level type in the standards tree and
   has a parameter "charset" with the value "utf-8".

   Media types can be further refined by

   o  structured type name suffixes (e.g., "+xml" appended to the base
      subtype name; see Section 4.2.8 of RFC 6838 [2]),

   o  a "profile" parameter (see Section 3.1 of RFC 6906 [25]),

   o  subtype information embedded in the representations themselves
      (e.g., "xmlns" declarations in XML documents [11]),

   or a similar annotation.  An annotation directly in the media type is
   generally preferable, since subtype information embedded in
   representations can typically not be negotiated during content
   negotiation (e.g., using the CoAP Accept option).





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   In CoAP, media types are combined with content coding information
   [15] to indicate the "content format" [24] of a representation.  Each
   content format is assigned a numeric identifier that can be used
   instead of the (typically much longer) textual name of the media type
   in representation formats with space constraints.  The flat number
   space loses the structural information that the textual names have,
   however.

   The media type of a representation must be determined from in-band
   information (e.g., from the CoAP Content-Format option).  Clients
   must not assume a structure from the application context or other
   out-of-band information.

      IANA maintains a list of registered Internet media types at
      <http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types>.

      IANA maintains a list of registered structured suffixes at
      <http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-type-structured-suffix>.

      IANA maintains a list of registered CoAP content formats at
      <http://www.iana.org/assignments/core-parameters>.

2.2.1.  Representation Formats

   In RESTful applications, clients and servers exchange representations
   that capture the current or intended state of a resource and that are
   labeled with a media type.  A representation is a sequence of bytes
   whose structure and semantics are specified by a representation
   format: a set of rules for encoding information.

   Representation formats should generally allow clients with different
   goals, so they can do different things with the same data.  The
   specification of a representation format "describes a problem space,
   not a prescribed relationship between client and server.  Client and
   server must share an understanding of the representations they're
   passing back and forth, but they don't need to have the same idea of
   what the problem is that needs to be solved." [22]

   Representation formats and their specifications frequently evolve
   over time.  It is part of the responsibility of the designer of a new
   version to insure both forward and backward compatibility: new
   representations should work reasonably (with some fallback) with old
   processors and old representations should work reasonably with new
   processors [21].

   Representation formats enable hypermedia-driven applications when
   they support the expression of hypermedia controls, i.e., links
   (Section 2.2.2) and forms (Section 2.2.3).



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2.2.2.  Links

   As described in RFC 5988 [5], a link is a typed connection between
   two resources.  Additionally, a link is the primary means for a
   client to navigate from one resource to another.

   A link is comprised of:

   o  a link context (usually the "current" resource),

   o  a link relation type that identifies the semantics of the link
      (see Section 2.3),

   o  a link target, identified by a URI, and

   o  optionally, target attributes that further describe the link or
      the link target.

   A link can be viewed as a statement of the form "{link context} has a
   {link relation type} resource at {link target}, which has {target
   attributes}" [5].  For example, the resource <http://example.com/>
   could have a "terms-of-service" resource at <http://example.com/tos>,
   which has a representation with the media type "text/html".

   There are two special kinds of links:

   o  An embedding link is a link with an additional hint: when the link
      is processed, it should be substituted with the representation of
      the referenced resource rather than cause the client to navigate
      away from the current resource.  Thus, traversing an embedding
      link adds to the current state rather than replacing it.

      The most well known example for an embedding link is the HTML
      <img> element.  When a Web browser processes this element, it
      automatically dereferences the "src" and renders the resulting
      image in place of the <img> element.

   o  A templated link is a link where the client constructs the link
      target URI from provided in-band instructions.  The specific rules
      for such instructions are described by the representation format.
      URI Templates [3] provide a generic way to construct URIs through
      variable expansion.

      Templated links allow a client to construct resource URIs without
      being coupled to the resource structure at the server, provided
      that the client learns the template from a representation sent by
      the server and does not have the template hard-coded.




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2.2.3.  Forms

   A form is the primary means for a client to submit information to a
   server, typically in order to change resource state.

   A form is comprised of:

   o  a form context (usually the "current" resource),

   o  a form relation type that identifies the semantics of the form
      (see Section 2.4),

   o  a form target, identified by a URI,

   o  a submission method (PUT, POST, PATCH, FETCH, or DELETE),

   o  a description of a representation that the server expects as part
      of the form submission, and

   o  optionally, target attributes that further describe the form or
      the form target.

   A form can be viewed as an instruction of the form "To {form relation
   type} the {form context}, make a {method} request to {form target},
   which has {target attributes}".  For example, to "update" the
   resource <http://example.com/config>, a client could be required to
   make a PUT request to <http://example.com/config>.  (In many cases,
   the target of a form is the same resource as the context, but this is
   not required.)

   The description of the expected representation can be a set of form
   fields (see Section 2.4.1) or simply a list of acceptable media
   types.

   Note:  A form with a submission method of GET is, strictly speaking,
      a templated link, since it provides a way to construct a URI and
      does not submit a representation to the server.

2.3.  Link Relation Types

   A link relation type identifies the semantics of a link [5].  For
   example, a link with the relation type "copyright" indicates that the
   resource identified by the target URI is a statement of the copyright
   terms applying to the link context.

   Relation types are not to be confused with media types; they do not
   identify the format of the representation that results when the link




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   is dereferenced [5].  Rather, they only describe how the link context
   is related to another resource [5].

      IANA maintains a list of registered link relation types at
      <http://www.iana.org/assignments/link-relations>.

   Applications that don't wish to register a link relation type can use
   an extension link relation type [5], which is a URI that uniquely
   identifies the link relation type.  For example, an application can
   use the string "http://example.com/foo" as link relation type without
   having to register it.  Using a URI to identify an extension link
   relation type, rather than a simple string, reduces the probability
   of different link relation types using the same identifiers.

   In order to minimize the overhead of link relation types in
   representation formats with space constraints, IANA-registered link
   relation types are assigned a numeric identifier that can be used in
   place of the textual name (see also Section 6.2).  For example, the
   link relation type "copyright" has the number 12.  A representation
   format may additionally provide numeric identifiers for extension
   link relation types.

2.3.1.  Template Variable Names

   A templated link enables clients to construct the target URI of a
   link, for example, when the link refers to a space of resources
   rather than a single resource.  The most prominent mechanisms for
   this are URI Templates [3] and the HTML <form> element with a
   submission method of GET.

   To enable an automated client to construct an URI reference from a
   URI Template, the name of the variable in the template can be used to
   identify the semantics of the variable.  For example, when retrieving
   the representation of a collection of temperature readings, a
   variable named "threshold" could indicate the variable for setting a
   threshold of the readings to retrieve.

   Template variable names are scoped to link relation types, i.e., two
   variables with the same name can have different semantics if they
   appear in links with different link relation types.

2.4.  Form Relation Types

   A form relation type identifies the semantics of a form.  For
   example, a form with the form relation type "create-item" indicates
   that a new item can be created within the form context by making a
   request to the resource identified by the target URI.




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      IANA maintains a list of registered form relation types at
      <TBD>.

   Similar to extension link relation types, applications can use
   extension form relation types when they don't wish to register a form
   relation type.

   IANA-registered form relation types are assigned a numeric identifier
   that can be used in place of the textual name.  For example, the form
   relation type "update" has the number 3.  A representation format may
   additionally provide numeric identifiers for extension form relation
   types.

2.4.1.  Form Field Names

   Forms can have a detailed description of the representation expected
   by the server as part of form submission.  This description typically
   consists of a set of form fields where each form field is comprised
   of a field name, a field type, and optionally a number of attributes
   such as a default value, a validation rule or a human-readable label.

   To enable an automated client to fill out a form, the field name can
   be used to identify the semantics of the form field.  For example,
   when controlling a smart light bulb, the field name "brightness"
   could indicate the field for setting the desired brightness of the
   light bulb.

   Field names are scoped to form relation types, i.e., two form fields
   with the same name can have different semantics if they appear in
   forms with different form relation types.

   The type of a form field is a data type such as "an integer between 1
   and 100" or "a RGB color".  The type is orthogonal to the field name,
   i.e., the type should not be determined from the field name even
   though the client can identify the semantics of the field from the
   name.  This separation makes it easy to change the set of acceptable
   values in the future.

2.5.  Well-Known Locations

   Some applications may require the discovery of information about a
   host, known as "site-wide metadata" in RFC 5785 [4].  For example,
   RFC 6415 [19] defines a metadata document format for describing a
   host; similarly, RFC 6690 [23] defines a link format for the
   discovery of resources hosted by a server.

   Applications that need to define a resource for this kind of metadata
   can register new "well-known locations".  RFC 5785 [4] defines the



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   path prefix "/.well-known/" in "http" and "https" URIs for this
   purpose.  RFC 7252 [24] extends this convention to "coap" and "coaps"
   URIs.

      IANA maintains a list of registered well-known URIs at
      <http://www.iana.org/assignments/well-known-uris>.

3.  Application Description Template

   As applications are implemented and deployed, it becomes important to
   describe them in some structured way.  This section provides a simple
   template for CoRE Application Descriptions.  A uniform structure
   allows implementers to easily determine the components that make up
   the interface of an application.

   The template below lists all components of applications that both the
   client and the server implementation of the application need to
   understand in order to interoperate.  Crucially, items not listed in
   the template are not part of the contract between clients and servers
   -- they are implementation details.  This includes in particular the
   URIs of resources (see Section 4).

   CoRE Application Descriptions are intended to be published in human-
   readable format by designers of applications and by operators of
   deployed application instances.  Application designers may publish an
   application description as a general specification of all application
   instances, so that implementers can create interoperable clients and
   servers.  Operators of application instances may publish an
   application description as part of the API documentation of the
   service, which should also include instructions how the service can
   be located and which communication protocols and security modes are
   used.

   The fields of the template are as follows:

   Application name:
      Name of the application.  The name is not used to negotiate
      capabilities; it is purely informational.  A name may include a
      version number or, for example, refer to a living standard that is
      updated continuously.

   URI schemes:
      URI schemes identifying the communication protocols that need to
      be understood by clients and servers.  This information is mostly
      relevant for deploymed instances of the application rather than
      for the general specification of the application.

   Media types:



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      Internet media types that identify the representation formats that
      need to be understood by clients and servers.  An application
      description must comprise at least one media type.  Additional
      media types may be required or optional.

   Link relation types:
      Link relation types that identify the semantics of links.  An
      application description may comprise IANA-registered link relation
      types and extension link relation types.  Both may be required or
      optional.

   Template variable names:
      For each link relation type, variable names that identify the
      semantics of variables in templated links with that link relation
      type.  Whether a template variable is required or optional is
      indicated in-band inside the templated link.

   Form relation types:
      Form relation types that identify the semantics of forms and, for
      each form relation type, the submission method(s) to be used.  An
      application description may comprise IANA-registered form relation
      types and extension form relation types.  Both may be required or
      optional.

   Form field names:
      For each form relation type, form field names that identify the
      semantics of form fields in forms with that form relation type.
      Whether a form field is required or optional is indicated in-band
      inside the form.

   Well-known locations:
      Well-known locations in the resource identifier space of servers
      that clients can use to discover information given the DNS name or
      IP address of a server.

   Interoperability considerations:
      Any issues regarding the interoperable use of the components of
      the application should be given here.

   Security considerations:
      Security considerations for the security of the application must
      be specified here.

   Contact:
      Person (including contact information) to contact for further
      information.

   Author/Change controller:



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      Person (including contact information) authorized to change this
      application description.

   Each field should include full citations for all specifications
   necessary to understand the application components.

4.  URI Design Considerations

   URIs [1] are a cornerstone of RESTful applications.  They enable
   uniform identification of resources via URI schemes [7] and are used
   every time a client interacts with a particular resource or when a
   resource representation references another resource.

   URIs often include structured application data in the path and query
   components, such as paths in a filesystem or keys in a database.  It
   is common for many RESTful applications to use these structures not
   only as an implementation detail but also make them part of the
   public REST API, prescribing a fixed format for this data.  However,
   there are a number of problems with this practice [6], in particular
   if the application designer and the server owner are not the same
   entity.

   In hypermedia-driven applications, URIs are therefore not included in
   the application interface.  A CoRE Application Description must not
   mandate any particular form of URI substructure.

   RFC 7320 [6] describes the problematic practice of fixed URI
   structures in detail and provides some acceptable alternatives.

   Nevertheless, the design of the URI structure on a server is an
   essential part of implementing a RESTful application, even though it
   is not part of the application interface.  The server implementer is
   responsible for binding the resources identified by the application
   designer to URIs.

   A good RESTful URI is:

   o  Short.  Short URIs are easier to remember and cause less overhead
      in requests and representations.

   o  Meaningful.  A URI should describe the resource in a way that is
      meaningful and useful to humans.

   o  Consistent.  URIs should follow a consistent pattern to make it
      easy to reason about the application.

   o  Bookmarkable.  Cool URIs don't change [9].  However, in practice,
      application resource structures do change.  That should cause URIs



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      to change as well so they better reflect reality.  Implementations
      should not depend on unchanging URIs.

   o  Shareable.  A URI should not be context sensitive, e.g., to the
      currently logged-in user.  It should be possible to share a URI
      with third parties so they can access the same resource.

   o  Extension-less.  Some applications return different data for
      different extensions, e.g., for "contacts.xml" or "contacts.json".
      But different URIs imply different resources.  RESTful URIs should
      identify a single resource.  Different representations of the
      resource can be negotiated (e.g., using the CoAP Accept option).

5.  Security Considerations

   The security considerations of RFC 3986 [1], RFC 5785 [4], RFC 5988
   [5], RFC 6570 [3], RFC 6838 [2], RFC 7320 [6], and RFC 7595 [7] are
   inherited.

   All components of an application description are expected to contain
   clear security considerations.  CoRE Application Descriptions should
   furthermore contain security considerations that need to be taken
   into account for the security of the overall application.

6.  IANA Considerations

   [Note to RFC Editor: Please replace XXXX in this section with the RFC
   number of this specification.]

6.1.  Content-Format Registry

   RFC 6838 [2] establishes a IANA registry for media types.  Many of
   these media types are also useful in constrained environments as CoAP
   content formats.  RFC 7252 [24] establishes a IANA registry for these
   content formats.  This specification tasks IANA with the allocation
   of a content format for any existing or new media type registration
   that does not define any parameters (required or optional).  The
   content formats shall be allocated in the range 1000-9999.

6.2.  Link Relation Type Registry

   RFC 5988 [5] establishes a IANA registry for link relation types.
   This specification extends the registration template with a "Relation
   ID": a numeric identifier that can be used instead of the "Relation
   Name" to identify a link relation type.  IANA is tasked with the
   assignment of an ID to any existing or new link relation type.  The
   IDs shall be assigned in the range 1-9999.




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6.3.  Form Relation Type Registry

   This specification establishes a IANA registry for form relation
   types.

6.3.1.  Registering New Form Relation Types

   Form relation types are registered in the same way as link relation
   types [5], i.e., they are registered on the advice of a Designated
   Expert with a Specification Required.

   The requirements for registered relation types are adopted from
   Section 4.1 of RFC 5988 [5].

   The registration template is:

   o  Relation Name:

   o  Relation ID:

   o  Description:

   o  Reference:

   o  Notes: [optional]

   The IDs shall be assigned in the range 1-9999.

6.3.2.  Initial Registry Contents

   The Form Relation Type registry's initial contents are:

   o  Relation Name: create-item
      Relation ID: 1
      Description: Refers to a resource that can be used to create a
      resource in a collection of resources.
      Reference: [RFCXXXX]

   o  Relation Name: delete
      Relation ID: 2
      Description: Refers to a resource that can be used to delete a
      resource in a collection of resources.
      Reference: [RFCXXXX]

   o  Relation Name: update
      Relation ID: 3
      Description: Refers to a resource that can be used to update the
      state of the form context.



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      Reference: [RFCXXXX]

   o  Relation Name: search
      Relation ID: 4
      Description: Refers to a resource that can be used to search the
      form context.
      Reference: [RFCXXXX]

7.  References

7.1.  Normative References

   [1]        Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform
              Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66,
              RFC 3986, DOI 10.17487/RFC3986, January 2005,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3986>.

   [2]        Freed, N., Klensin, J., and T. Hansen, "Media Type
              Specifications and Registration Procedures", BCP 13,
              RFC 6838, DOI 10.17487/RFC6838, January 2013,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6838>.

   [3]        Gregorio, J., Fielding, R., Hadley, M., Nottingham, M.,
              and D. Orchard, "URI Template", RFC 6570,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6570, March 2012,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6570>.

   [4]        Nottingham, M. and E. Hammer-Lahav, "Defining Well-Known
              Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs)", RFC 5785,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5785, April 2010,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5785>.

   [5]        Nottingham, M., "Web Linking", RFC 5988,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5988, October 2010,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5988>.

   [6]        Nottingham, M., "URI Design and Ownership", BCP 190,
              RFC 7320, DOI 10.17487/RFC7320, July 2014,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7320>.

   [7]        Thaler, D., Ed., Hansen, T., and T. Hardie, "Guidelines
              and Registration Procedures for URI Schemes", BCP 35,
              RFC 7595, DOI 10.17487/RFC7595, June 2015,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7595>.







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7.2.  Informative References

   [8]        Belshe, M., Peon, R., and M. Thomson, Ed., "Hypertext
              Transfer Protocol Version 2 (HTTP/2)", RFC 7540,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7540, May 2015,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7540>.

   [9]        Berners-Lee, T., "Cool URIs don't change", 1998,
              <http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI.html>.

   [10]       Bormann, C., Ersue, M., and A. Keranen, "Terminology for
              Constrained-Node Networks", RFC 7228,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7228, May 2014,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7228>.

   [11]       Bray, T., Hollander, D., Layman, A., Tobin, R., and H.
              Thompson, "Namespaces in XML 1.0 (Third Edition)", World
              Wide Web Consortium Recommendation REC-xml-names-20091208,
              December 2009,
              <http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/REC-xml-names-20091208>.

   [12]       Bray, T., Paoli, J., Sperberg-McQueen, M., Maler, E., and
              F. Yergeau, "Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth
              Edition)", World Wide Web Consortium Recommendation REC-
              xml-20081126, November 2008,
              <http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-xml-20081126>.

   [13]       Bray, T., Paoli, J., Sperberg-McQueen, M., Maler, E.,
              Yergeau, F., and J. Cowan, "Extensible Markup Language
              (XML) 1.1 (Second Edition)", World Wide Web Consortium
              Recommendation REC-xml11-20060816, August 2006,
              <http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/REC-xml11-20060816>.

   [14]       Fielding, R., Ed. and J. Reschke, Ed., "Hypertext Transfer
              Protocol (HTTP/1.1): Message Syntax and Routing",
              RFC 7230, DOI 10.17487/RFC7230, June 2014,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7230>.

   [15]       Fielding, R., Ed. and J. Reschke, Ed., "Hypertext Transfer
              Protocol (HTTP/1.1): Semantics and Content", RFC 7231,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7231, June 2014,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7231>.

   [16]       Fielding, R., "Architectural Styles and the Design of
              Network-based Software Architectures", Ph.D. Dissertation,
              University of California, Irvine, 2000,
              <http://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/
              fielding_dissertation.pdf>.



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   [17]       Fielding, R., "REST APIs must be hypertext-driven",
              October 2008, <http://roy.gbiv.com/untangled/2008/
              rest-apis-must-be-hypertext-driven>.

   [18]       Friedl, S., Popov, A., Langley, A., and E. Stephan,
              "Transport Layer Security (TLS) Application-Layer Protocol
              Negotiation Extension", RFC 7301, DOI 10.17487/RFC7301,
              July 2014, <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7301>.

   [19]       Hammer-Lahav, E., Ed. and B. Cook, "Web Host Metadata",
              RFC 6415, DOI 10.17487/RFC6415, October 2011,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6415>.

   [20]       Li, L., Wei, Z., Luo, M., and W. Chou, "Requirements and
              Design Patterns for REST Northbound API in SDN", draft-li-
              sdnrg-design-restapi-02 (work in progress), July 2016.

   [21]       Masinter, L., "MIME and the Web", draft-masinter-mime-web-
              info-02 (work in progress), January 2011.

   [22]       Richardson, L. and M. Amundsen, "RESTful Web APIs",
              O'Reilly Media, ISBN 978-1-4493-5806-8, September 2013.

   [23]       Shelby, Z., "Constrained RESTful Environments (CoRE) Link
              Format", RFC 6690, DOI 10.17487/RFC6690, August 2012,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6690>.

   [24]       Shelby, Z., Hartke, K., and C. Bormann, "The Constrained
              Application Protocol (CoAP)", RFC 7252,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC7252, June 2014,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7252>.

   [25]       Wilde, E., "The 'profile' Link Relation Type", RFC 6906,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC6906, March 2013,
              <http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6906>.

Acknowledgements

   Jan Algermissen, Mike Amundsen, Mike Kelly, Julian Reschke, and Erik
   Wilde provided valuable input on link and form relation types.

   Thanks to Olaf Bergmann, Carsten Bormann, Stefanie Gerdes, Ari
   Keranen, Michael Koster, Matthias Kovatsch, Teemu Savolainen, and
   Bilhanan Silverajan for helpful comments and discussions that have
   shaped the document.

   Some of the text in this document has been borrowed from [5], [6],
   [17], [20], and [21].  All errors are my own.



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   This work was funded in part by Nokia.

Author's Address

   Klaus Hartke
   Universitaet Bremen TZI
   Postfach 330440
   Bremen  D-28359
   Germany

   Phone: +49-421-218-63905
   Email: hartke@tzi.org







































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