Internet Engineering Task Force                              L. Svensson
Internet-Draft
Intended status: Informational                               R. Verborgh
Expires: August 7, 2021                          Ghent University - imec
                                                        H. Van de Sompel
                                   Data Archiving and Networked Services
                                                        February 3, 2021


       Indicating, Discovering, Negotiating, and Writing Profiled
                            Representations
               draft-svensson-profiled-representations-00

Abstract

   This document details approaches for enriching HTTP interactions with
   information pertaining to the profiles to which resource
   representations conform.  It surveys approaches that were recently
   introduced to indicate the profile of a resource representation, and
   to make representations that conform to a profile discoverable.  It
   introduces a generally applicable approach to negotiate for a
   resource representation that conforms to a profile preferred by a
   user agent.  That approach leverages the existing content negotiation
   mechanism but applies it to the profile dimension to which it was
   previously not applied.  The document also shows how a server can
   convey which profiled representations it is able to accept from a
   user agent.

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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   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
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   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 August 7, 2021.







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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2021 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
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (https://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  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
     1.1.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     1.2.  Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
     1.3.  Notational Conventions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   2.  Indicating Profiled Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . .   5
   3.  Discovering Profiled Representations  . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   4.  Negotiating for Profiled Representations  . . . . . . . . . .   7
     4.1.  Profile Negotiation Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
       4.1.1.  Proactive Profile Negotiation . . . . . . . . . . . .   9
       4.1.2.  Reactive Profile Negotiation  . . . . . . . . . . . .  12
     4.2.  Accept-Profile HTTP Header Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   5.  Writing Profiled Representations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  14
   6.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
   7.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
   8.  Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
   9.  References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  16
     9.1.  Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
     9.2.  Informative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  17
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  18

1.  Introduction

   Any given web resource can typically be represented in a variety of
   ways.  For example, the same information could be rendered according
   to different media types, say, as XML or JSON.  But in many cases,
   variations in representation other than those inherent to a given
   media type are also possible.  For example, the same structured data
   could be rendered in XML according to different XML Schema
   [W3C.REC-xmlschema11-1-20120405].  Or the same RDF graph could be
   expressed on the basis of different vocabularies.




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   This dimension of variability regarding representations that goes
   beyond media types has been acknowledged for quite some time.  For
   example, in 2000, the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI)
   introduced "Application Profiles" to explicitly acknowledge that the
   same metadata can be represented in various ways and defined them as
   "schemas which consist of data elements drawn from one or more
   namespaces, combined together by implementers, and optimised for a
   particular local application" [HeeryAndPatel].

1.1.  Terminology

   Inspired by the term used in [RFC6906] to refer to this extra
   dimension of variability, this document uses the term "profile" to
   mean a description of structural and/or semantic constraints on
   representations of resources that apply in addition to the
   constraints inherently indicated by their MIME type:

   o  Profiles can be dependent on a media type.  For example, this is
      the case for XML, with constraints being expressed using an XML
      Schema.  This is also the case for JSON that offers a wide range
      of options regarding the use of tree structure, keys, and value
      types.  In these cases, the meaning of the term "profile" intended
      by this document coincides with the use of the same term in
      [RFC6906].

   o  Profiles can be independent of media type.  For example, this is
      the case for RDF graphs that can be rendered according to various
      media types, while constraints can be expressed in a manner that
      is independent of media type, among others, using SHACL
      [W3C.REC-shacl-20170720].  In these cases, the meaning of the term
      "profile" intended by this document is a slight extension of the
      one intended by [RFC6906].

1.2.  Purpose

   When it comes to HTTP interactions, profiles have received little
   attention despite their de facto existence and the added-value they
   can bring for building rich applications.  Such applications benefit
   from knowledge regarding the nature of a representation that a client
   obtains from a server, that a client sends to a server, and that a
   server is willing to accept from a client, beyond what is conveyed by
   the representation's MIME type.  These applications are also be
   helped by an ability to discover representations rendered according
   to a profile they can handle, or, optimally, an ability to explicitly
   request a rendering according to a preferred profile.

   A common approach to handle profiles is to register them as a media
   type, dedicated to the combination of an actual media type and a



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   profile of it.  Media types that illustrate this approach include
   "application/activity+json", "application/calendar+json", and
   "application/calendar+xml.  This approach allows conveying all
   necessary profile information in HTTP interactions, e.g. using the
   "Accept" and "Content-Encoding" HTTP headers and the "type" attribute
   for web links.  As such it supports indicating, discovering, and
   content negotiating (in the media type dimension) for profiled
   representations.  This registraton-based approach may be feasible for
   profiles that are expected to be very widely used but is not
   practical in case support for many different profiles is required.
   Also, the "calendar" examples illustrate that the registration-based
   approach is not ideal when a profile applies to multiple media types.
   And, the "activity" example illustrates that the approach supports
   indicating what the major ingredient of a profiled representation is
   (i.e. the ActivityStreams Vocabulary) but becomes problematic when
   indications are also needed regarding additional vocabularies used in
   representations.

   Another approach to handle profiles leverages the ability provided by
   [RFC6838] to register parameters when registering a media type.  Some
   media types have used this capability to register an attribute
   dedicated to conveying profiles of the media type.  For example, for
   "application/ld+json" the "profile" parameter has been registered for
   this purpose.  The approach provides flexibility for handling many
   profiles, including ones that are not yet known when registering the
   media type.  It also supports indicating, discovering, and content
   negotiating (in the media type dimension) for profiled
   representations using common approaches.  But the approach remains
   problematic because it ties profile information to a media type,
   depends on registering a parameter to convey profile information when
   registering a new media type, and, realistically, on the registration
   of the same parameter name (i.e. "profile" as suggested in [RFC6906])
   for all media types for which registrants deem that conveying profile
   information is important.  Additionaly, [RFC6838] discourages
   registering parameters for previously registered media types, making
   it highly questionable that a uniform attribute to convey profile
   information across all media types could retroactively be defined.

   Recognizing the importance of profiles and the problems with the
   aforementioned approaches to handle them, specifications have started
   to introduce alternative approaches to express information about
   resource representation profiles in HTTP interactions:

   o  [RFC6906] introduces the "profile" link relation type that is
      generally applicable for indicating the profile of a resource
      representation that is sent by a client to a server or by a server
      to a client.




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   o  [I-D.nottingham-link-hint] introduces a capability to make
      profiled representations discoverable via web links by using the
      "formats" attribute to express the profile of a linked resource.

   Section 2 and Section 3 provide a concise overview of the approaches
   introduced by [RFC6906] and [I-D.nottingham-link-hint], to
   respectively indicate and discover the profile of resource
   representations.  Section 4 specifies a generally applicable approach
   to negotiate for representations that conform to a profile preferred
   by a user agent.  Section 5 shows how servers can convey which
   profiled representations they are able to accept from user agents.

1.3.  Notational Conventions

   The 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 [RFC2119].

   This specification uses the terms "link context" and "link target" as
   defined in [RFC8288].  These terms respectively correspond with
   "Context IRI" and "Target IRI" as used in [RFC5988].  Although
   defined as IRIs, in common scenarios they are also URIs.

   In the examples provided in this document, links in the HTTP "Link"
   header are shown on separate lines in order to improve readability.
   Note, however, that as per Section 3.2 of [RFC7230], line breaks are
   not allowed in values for HTTP headers; only whitespaces and tabs are
   supported as seperators.

2.  Indicating Profiled Representations

   As per [RFC6906], a web link with a "profile" link relation type can
   be used to indicate the profile of a representation that is exchanged
   in HTTP interactions.  Figure 1 shows a client requesting a
   representation from a server and Figure 2 shows the server
   responding.  The response includes a "Link" header ([RFC8288]) that
   contains a link with the "profile" relation type.  The link target
   <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> indicates the profile of the response
   body (not shown).

   Figure 3 shows a client submitting a representation to a server,
   using the same approach to express the profile to which that
   representation complies.  Section 5 describes how a server can convey
   the profiles it supports for representations that are submitted by a
   user agent.






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   GET /some/resource HTTP/1.1
   Host: example.org
   Connection: close


                Figure 1: Client requests a representation

   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   Content-Type: application/xml ; charset=utf-8
   Link: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/>; rel="profile"
   Content-Length: 23364
   Connection: close

   ...


   Figure 2: Server indicates the profile of the returned representation

   PUT /some/resource HTTP/1.1
   Host: example.org
   Content-Type: application/xml ; charset=utf-8
   Link: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/>; rel="profile"
   Content-Length: 23364
   Connection: close

   ...


   Figure 3: Client indicates the profile of a representation submitted
                                to a server

   In some cases organisations use separate servers to perform content
   negotiation and to deliver resources, e. g. when static content is
   served through content delivery networks.  The servers that perform
   the content negotiation interact with the client requesting the
   resource and then typically refer to the correct representation using
   a 303 redirect.  In those cases the servers that deliver the
   representations are not profile aware and thus cannot add the
   appropriate "Link" headers to the response.  Instead the server
   performing the negotiation will have to supply that information.
   This is done by adding an "anchor" attribute pointing to the
   representation the link header refers to.  Figure 4 shows the
   response to a Figure 1 where the server performing the negotiation
   redirects the client to the resource specified in the "Location"
   header and by using the same URI in the "anchor" attribute of the
   "Link" header indicates that the information in the "Link" header
   does not apply to the this response but to the resource redirected
   to.



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   HTTP/1.1 300 See other
   Location: https://static.example.org/other/resource
   Link: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/>; rel="profile"
           ; anchor="https://static.example.org/other/resource"

   ...


   Figure 4: Server indicates the profile of the representation referred
                        to in the 'Location' header

3.  Discovering Profiled Representations

   The link hints capability introduced in [I-D.nottingham-link-hint],
   can be leveraged by a server to make profiled representations
   discoverable by including a "formats" attribute on web links.
   Figure 5 shows a response to the client request of Figure 1 in which
   the server uses this technique.  The "Link" header indicates the
   profile of the returned representation but also points at two
   alternative representations, each of which conforms to another
   profile.

   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   Content-Type: application/xml
   Link: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> ; rel="profile" ,
         </some/other_resource_1>
            ; rel="alternate" ; type="application/xml"
            ; formats="http://example.org/our_internal_xml_profile" ,
         </some/other_resource_2>
            ; rel="alternate"
            ; formats="http://example.org/our_community_profile"
   Content-Length: 23364
   Connection: close

   ...


       Figure 5: Server makes profiled representations discoverable

4.  Negotiating for Profiled Representations

   Section 1.2 describes two approaches for conveying profile
   information in HTTP interactions that make it possible to negotiate
   for profiled representations by applying content negotiation in the
   media type dimension.  It also indicates the restricted applicability
   of these approaches, in both cases a result of their direct
   dependence on the media type registration process.




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   This section describes an approach that applies content negotiation
   in a dimension that it was previously not applied to.  The profile
   negotiation approach introduced here is generally applicable for
   resource representations, irrespective of media type.  These are its
   core aspects:

   o  In order to allow a user agent to inform a server about its
      preferences regarding profiles for resource representations, the
      "Accept-Profile" HTTP header introduced here is used.  A user
      agent can specify several profiles and use quality indicators
      (q-values) to indicate preferences.

   o  In order to allow a server to express its support for profile
      negotiation the "Vary" HTTP header is used, in this case, with the
      "Accept-Profile" value.

   o  In order to allow a server to convey the profile of a
      representation delivered to a user agent, rather than the
      introducing a server-side counterpart to the client-side "Accept-
      Profile" header, the existing "profile" link approach introduced
      by [RFC6906] is used.  If a representation conforms to multiple
      profiles, a distinct "profile" link is used per profile; the order
      in which these links are provided has no relevance.

   o  In order to allow a server to convey the profiles it supports, web
      links with the "formats" link hint introduced in
      [I-D.nottingham-link-hint] are used to convey the profiles of the
      link target resources.  This approach uniformely applies to
      reponses to HTTP HEAD/GET/PUT/POST/PATCH.

   o  Throughout the profile negotiation approach, a profile MUST be
      referred to by a URI.  This is the case for the content of the
      "Accept-Profile" HTTP header, for the target of web links with the
      "profile" link relation, and for the content of the "formats" link
      hint for web links.

4.1.  Profile Negotiation Details

   Profile negotiation uses the content negotiation processes described
   in Section 3.4 of RFC 7231 [RFC7231] but applies them to the profile
   dimension.  Both proactive negotiation and reactive negotiation for
   profiles can be supported by servers.  Both are described in more
   detail in the remainder of this section.

   In profile negotiation, a profile MUST be referred to by a URI that,
   from here onwards, is named a profile URI.  If the profile URI is
   dereferencable it SHOULD lead to a document that details the profile.
   If the profile URI is not dereferencable (e.g. a URN [RFC8141] or an



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   info-URI [RFC4452]) facilities SHOULD be available to allow user
   agents and servers to understand their meaning, e.g. community
   registries of profiles.

4.1.1.  Proactive Profile Negotiation

   In proactive profile negotiation, the user agent uses the "Accept-
   Profile" HTTP header to inform the server about the agent's
   preference regarding profiles to be used for representing a resource
   in the server's response.  In case a user agent wants to express a
   preference for a single profile, the value of the header is that
   profile's URI.  In case a user agent wants to express a preference
   for multiple profiles, the value of the header is a list containing
   each profile's URI, seperated by commas.  Alternatively, multiple
   "Accept-Profile" HTTP headers can be used, each conveying a single
   profile URI.  Quality indicators (q-values) MAY be used to rank
   profile preferences.  The order in which profile URIs are conveyed or
   the duplicate mentioning of a same profile URI MUST NOT be
   interpreted as significant.

   A server that supports proactive profile negotiation for the resource
   that a user agent interacts with:

   o  MUST include a "Vary" HTTP header containing the value "accept-
      profile" in its response to the user agent.

   o  MUST include a "Link" HTTP header containing a link with the
      "profile" relation type that has as link target the profile URI of
      the resource representation returned to the user agent.  In case
      the representation conforms to additional profiles known to the
      server, such a "profile" link SHOULD be included for each.

   o  SHOULD convey the availability of alternate profiled
      representations of the resource by using the link hint approach
      described in Section 4.1.2.

   These requirements for servers that support proactive profile
   negotiation also apply when:

   o  The user agent expressed a profile preference in its request by
      using an "Accept-Profile" header but the server cannot return a
      representation that conforms to a preferred profile.

   o  The user agent did not express a profile preference using an
      "Accept-Profile" header in its request.

   A user agent SHOULD interpret the abscence of a "Vary" HTTP header
   with an "accept-profile" value in a response from a server as the



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   lack of support for profile negotiation for the resource the user
   agent interacts with.

   A server SHOULD consider representations that do not conform to any
   of the profiles listed by a user agent in an "Accept-Profile" header
   as non-interpretable by the agent.  As such, honoring the user agent
   preferences in the profile dimension SHOULD take precedence over
   honoring content negotiation in other dimensions.

   In Figure 6 a user agent requests an RDF serialization from a server
   and expresses preference for two media types using the "Accept"
   header and two profiles using the "Accept-Profile" header.  It uses
   q-values to express a preference for the profile with profile URI
   <http://example.org/shapes/shape-1> over the one with profile URI
   <http://example.org/shapes/shape-2>.

   GET /document HTTP/1.1
   Host: example.org
   Accept: text/turtle, application/rdf+xml
   Accept-Profile: "http://example.org/shapes/shape-1" ; q=0.8 ,
                   "http://example.org/shapes/shape-2" ; q=0.5
   Connection: close


         Figure 6: Client expresses a preference for two profiles

   Figure 7 shows the server's response to the request of Figure 6.  By
   means of the "Vary" header, the server expresses support for
   negotiation in both the media type and profile dimensions.  The
   "profile" link with link target <http://example.org/shapes/shape-2>
   indicates that the server was able to honor the user agent's second
   profile preference.  Another "profile" link shows that the delivered
   representation also conforms to a profile with profile URI
   <http://example.org/shapes/shape-3>.  Furthermore, using an
   "alternate" link, the server indicates support for another profile
   with <http://example.org/shapes/shape-4> as profile URI.  Note that,
   even if the user agent does not express profile preferences using the
   "Accept-Profile" header and the server's "Vary" header would be the
   same, the "Link" header would still include a "profile" link to
   indicate the profile of the representation returned by the server.











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   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   Content-Type: text/turtle
   Vary: Accept, Accept-Profile
   Link: <http://example.org/shapes/shape-2>
         ; rel="profile" ,
         <http://example.org/shapes/shape-3>
         ; rel="profile" ,
         <http://example.org/document>
         ; rel="alternate"
         ; type="text/turtle"
         ; formats="http://example.org/shapes/shape-4"
   Content-Length: 8724
   Connection: close

   ...


            Figure 7: Response honors a user agent's preference

   Figure 8 shows the response to the request of Figure 6 in case the
   server supports profile negotiation for the resource at hand but can
   not return a representation that conforms to a profile preferred by
   the user agent.  The server has chosen to nevertheless return a
   representation that conforms to profile <http://example.org/shapes/
   shape-4>, which is not among the ones preferred by the user agent.
   The server also reveals the existence of a representation that
   conforms to profile <http://example.org/shapes/shape-5>.  The server
   could also choose not to return a default representation in which
   case it would return a "406 Not Acceptable" HTTP response code and no
   response body.  It would not provide any "profile" links but might
   use "alternate" links with a "formats" attribute to indicate the
   existence of supported profiles.



















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   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   Content-Type: text/turtle
   Vary: Accept, Accept-Profile
   Link: <http://example.org/shapes/shape-4>
         ; rel="profile" ,
         <http://example.org/document>
         ; rel="alternate"
         ; type="text/turtle"
         ; formats="http://example.org/shapes/shape-5"
   Content-Length: 6333
   Connection: close

   ...


      Figure 8: Response does not honor a user agent's preference but
                      includes default representation

   Figure 9 shows the response to the request of Figure 6 in case the
   server does not support profile negotiation for the resource
   <http://example.org/document>.  It does support negotiation in the
   media type dimension and has honoured one of the user agent's
   preferences with that regard, as can be seen by the "Vary" and
   "Content-Type" headers.

   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   Content-Type: text/turtle
   Vary: Accept
   Content-Length: 8724
   Connection: close

   ...


    Figure 9: Response indicates lack of support for proactive profile
                                negotiation

4.1.2.  Reactive Profile Negotiation

   In reactive profile negotiation, the user agent selects the profiled
   representation that best meets its preferences on the basis of a list
   of possible representations it obtains from the server.  A server
   that supports reactive profile negotiation MUST provide such a list
   of supported profiled representation as a set of links in the "Link"
   header.  Each of these links:

   o  SHOULD have the "alternate" relation type.




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   o  MUST use the "formats" link hint to convey the profile URI of the
      profile to which the resource that is the link target conforms.

   o  SHOULD use the "allow" link hint to convey the HTTP methods that
      are supported by the resource that is the link target.

   Figure 10 shows a user agent issuing a HTTP HEAD on a resource in
   order determine whether profiled representations are available for
   it.  Figure 11 shows the response of a server that supports reactive
   profile negotiation.  By means of "alternate" links in the "Link"
   header, the server indicates support for two profiled representations
   for the resource at hand, and, for each, indicates the URI at which
   they can be accessed, as well as their respective profile URIs, media
   types, and supported HTTP methods.  On the basis of this response,
   the client can decide whether any of the linked resources conform to
   a preferred profile, and, if so, access the respective link target.
   Figure 12 shows the response to an HTTP HEAD issued on the link
   target <http://example.org/bibrecord/1/DC> of the first "alternate"
   link.

   HEAD /bibrecord/1 HTTP/1.1
   Host: example.org
   Accept: application/xml
   Connection: close


             Figure 10: Client determines support for profiles

   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   Content-Type: text/plain
   Link: <http://example.org/bibrecord/1/DC>
         ; rel="alternate"
         ; type="application/xml"
         ; formats="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"
         ; allow="HEAD,GET,PATCH" ,
         <http://example.org/bibrecord/1/BIBFRAME>
         ; rel="alternate"
         ; formats="http://id.loc.gov/ontologies/bibframe/"
         ; allow="HEAD,GET"
   Content-Length: 200
   Connection: close


                  Figure 11: Server supports two profiles







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   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   Content-Type: application/xml
   Link: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/>
         ; rel="profile" ,
         <http://example.org/bibrecord/1/BIBFRAME>
         ; rel="alternate"
         ; formats="http://id.loc.gov/ontologies/bibframe/"
         ; allow="HEAD,GET"
   Allow: HEAD, GET, PATCH
   Accept-Patch: application/xml-patch+xml
   Content-Length: 458
   Connection: close


   Figure 12: Response to a client accessesing a profiled representation

4.2.  Accept-Profile HTTP Header Syntax

   Figure 13 describes the syntax of the "Accept-Profile" HTTP header,
   using the grammar defined in RFC 5234 [RFC5234] and the rules defined
   in Section 3.2 of RFC 7230 [RFC7230].  The definitions of "URI-
   reference" and "weight" are imported from RFC 7230 [RFC7230] and RFC
   7231 [RFC7231], respectively.

   Accept-Profile = "Accept-Profile" ":"
   OWS (accept-value) *(OWS "," OWS accept-value) OWS
   accept-value = "<" URI-reference ">" [weight] | accept-value-ext


           Figure 13: ABNF for the "Accept-Profile" HTTP header

5.  Writing Profiled Representations

   A user agent that wants to submit a profiled representation to a
   server can use the reactive negotiation approach to determine the
   nature of a server's support with this regard.

   A server that allows user agents to submit profiled representations
   SHOULD follow the directions for reactive negotiation described in
   Section 4.1.2.

   A client that submits a representation that complies to a profile
   that was not advertised by the server by means of the reactive
   negotiation approach, SHOULD assume that the server is not able to
   process it.

   A server that fails a submission request due to receiving a payload
   with a profile that it does not support MUST respond with a "422



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   Unprocessable Entity" HTTP status code and SHOULD use the approach
   described in Section 4.1.2 to convey profiles that are supported.

   Continuing from Figure 12, Figure 14 shows a user agent issuing a
   HTTP PATCH against resource <http://example.org/bibrecord/1/DC> in
   order to update it.  It uses the "Content-Encoding" header to convey
   the XML Patch media type of its message body and a link with a
   "profile" relation type in the "Link" header to indicate the profile
   to which it conforms.  Figure 15 shows the server's response,
   indicating that the patch was applied successfully; the server
   returns the updated representation as message body.

   PATCH /bibrecord/1/DC HTTP/1.1
   Host: example.org
   Content-Encoding: application/xml-patch+xml
   Link: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/>
         ; rel="profile"
   Accept: application/xml
   Content-Length: 321
   Connection: close

   ...


             Figure 14: Client submits profiled representation

   HTTP/1.1 200 OK
   Content-Type: application/xml
   Content-Location: http://example.org/bibrecord/1/DC
   Link: <http://example.org/bibrecord/1/DC>
         ; rel=profile" ,
         <http://example.org/bibrecord/1/BIBFRAME>
         ; rel="alternate"
         ; formats="http://id.loc.gov/ontologies/bibframe/"
         ; allow="HEAD,GET"
   Allow: HEAD, GET, PATCH
   Accept-Patch: application/xml-patch+xml
   Content-Length: 592
   Connection: close

   ...


       Figure 15: Server indicates successful submission of profiled
                         representation by client

   If, in Figure 14, the user agent would have issued an HTTP PATCH on
   resource <http://example.org/bibrecord/1/DC> indicating that the



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   profile URI of the patch was <http://id.loc.gov/ontologies/
   bibframe/>, the response would have a 422 HTTP status code to express
   that the profile is not supported by the resource at hand.  Such a
   response is shown in Figure 16.

   HTTP/1.1 422 Unprocessable Entity
   Content-Type: text/plain
   Link: <http://example.org/bibrecord/1/DC>
         ; rel="alternate"
         ; type="application/xml"
         ; formats="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"
         ; allow="HEAD,GET,PATCH"
   Content-Length: 110
   Connection: close

   ...


      Figure 16: Server indicates unsuccessful submission of profiled
                         representation by client

6.  IANA Considerations

   This memo requires IANA to register the Accept-Profile HTTP header
   defined in Section 4.2 in the appropriate IANA registry:

   o  Header Field Name: Accept-Profile

   o  Applicable Protocol: Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

   o  Status: Informational

   o  Author/Change controller: IETF

   o  Specification document(s): this document

7.  Security Considerations

8.  Acknowledgments

   Many thanks to our colleagues for feedback: Enno Meijers, Michael L.
   Nelson

9.  References







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9.1.  Normative References

   [I-D.nottingham-link-hint]
              Nottingham, M., "HTTP Link Hints", draft-nottingham-link-
              hint-02 (work in progress), March 2020.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

   [RFC5234]  Crocker, D., Ed. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
              Specifications: ABNF", STD 68, RFC 5234,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC5234, January 2008,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5234>.

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

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

   [RFC7230]  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,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7230>.

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

9.2.  Informative References

   [HeeryAndPatel]
              Heery, R. and M. Patel, "Application Profiles: Mixing and
              Matching Metadata Schemas", 2000,
              <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue25/app-profiles>.

   [RFC4452]  Van de Sompel, H., Hammond, T., Neylon, E., and S. Weibel,
              "The "info" URI Scheme for Information Assets with
              Identifiers in Public Namespaces", RFC 4452,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC4452, April 2006,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4452>.




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

   [RFC8141]  Saint-Andre, P. and J. Klensin, "Uniform Resource Names
              (URNs)", RFC 8141, DOI 10.17487/RFC8141, April 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8141>.

   [RFC8288]  Nottingham, M., "Web Linking", RFC 8288,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC8288, October 2017,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8288>.

   [W3C.REC-shacl-20170720]
              Knublauch, H. and D. Kontokostas, "Shapes Constraint
              Language (SHACL)", World Wide Web Consortium
              Recommendation REC-shacl-20170720, July 2017,
              <https://www.w3.org/TR/2017/REC-shacl-20170720>.

   [W3C.REC-xmlschema11-1-20120405]
              Gao, S., Sperberg-McQueen, M., Thompson, H., Mendelsohn,
              N., Beech, D., and M. Maloney, "W3C XML Schema Definition
              Language (XSD) 1.1 Part 1: Structures", World Wide Web
              Consortium Recommendation REC-xmlschema11-1-20120405,
              April 2012,
              <https://www.w3.org/TR/2012/REC-xmlschema11-1-20120405>.

Authors' Addresses

   Lars G. Svensson

   Email: lars.svensson@web.de
   URI:   https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8714-9718


   Ruben Verborgh
   Ghent University - imec
   Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41
   Ghent  9000
   Belgium

   Phone: +32 9 331 49 10
   Email: ruben.verborgh@ugent.be
   URI:   https://ruben.verborgh.org/








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   Herbert Van de Sompel
   Data Archiving and Networked Services
   Anna van Saksenlaan 51
   The Hague  2593 HW
   Netherlands

   Email: herbert.van.de.sompel@dans.knaw.nl
   URI:   https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0715-6126











































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