The 'acct' URI Scheme
RFC 7565
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) P. Saint-Andre
Request for Comments: 7565 May 2015
Category: Standards Track
ISSN: 2070-1721
The 'acct' URI Scheme
Abstract
This document defines the 'acct' Uniform Resource Identifier (URI)
scheme as a way to identify a user's account at a service provider,
irrespective of the particular protocols that can be used to interact
with the account.
Status of This Memo
This is an Internet Standards Track document.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on
Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7565.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2015 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
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the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.
Saint-Andre Standards Track [Page 1]
RFC 7565 The 'acct' URI Scheme May 2015
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ....................................................2
2. Terminology .....................................................2
3. Rationale .......................................................2
4. Definition ......................................................3
5. Security Considerations .........................................4
6. Internationalization Considerations .............................5
7. IANA Considerations .............................................5
8. References ......................................................6
8.1. Normative References .......................................6
8.2. Informative References .....................................7
Acknowledgements ...................................................8
Author's Address ...................................................8
1. Introduction
Existing Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) schemes that enable
interaction with, or that identify resources associated with, a
user's account at a service provider are tied to particular services
or application protocols. Two examples are the 'mailto' scheme
(which enables interaction with a user's email account) and the
'http' scheme (which enables retrieval of web files controlled by a
user or interaction with interfaces providing information about a
user). However, there exists no URI scheme that generically
identifies a user's account at a service provider without specifying
a particular protocol to use when interacting with the account. This
specification fills that gap.
2. Terminology
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and
"OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in
[RFC2119].
3. Rationale
During formalization of the WebFinger protocol [RFC7033], much
discussion occurred regarding the appropriate URI scheme to include
when specifying a user's account as a web link [RFC5988]. Although
both the 'mailto' [RFC6068] and 'http' [RFC7230] schemes were
proposed, not all service providers offer email services or web
interfaces on behalf of user accounts (e.g., a microblogging or
instant messaging provider might not offer email services, or an
enterprise might not offer HTTP interfaces to information about its
employees). Therefore, the participants in the discussion recognized
that it would be helpful to define a URI scheme that could be used to
Saint-Andre Standards Track [Page 2]
RFC 7565 The 'acct' URI Scheme May 2015
generically identify a user's account at a service provider,
irrespective of the particular application protocols used to interact
with the account. The result was the 'acct' URI scheme defined in
this document.
(Note that a user is not necessarily a human; it could be an
automated application such as a bot, a role-based alias, etc.
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