Changeset 2050 for draft-ietf-httpbis/latest/p2-semantics.xml

Timestamp:

14/12/12 00:39:56 (10 years ago)

Author:

fielding@…

Message:

Clean up of MIME and conneg; partly addresses #419

File:

• draft-ietf-httpbis/latest/p2-semantics.xml (modified) (12 diffs)

draft-ietf-httpbis/latest/p2-semantics.xml

@@ -388 +388 @@
   <x:anchor-alias value="rule.charset"/>
 <t>
-   HTTP uses charset names to indicate or negotiate the character encoding
-   scheme of a textual representation <xref target="RFC6365"/>.
+   HTTP uses <x:dfn>charset</x:dfn> names to indicate or negotiate the
+   character encoding scheme of a textual representation
+   <xref target="RFC6365"/>.
    A charset is identified by a case-insensitive token.
 </t>
@@ -404 +405 @@
 <section title="Canonicalization and Text Defaults" anchor="canonicalization.and.text.defaults">
 <t>
-   Internet media types are registered with a canonical form. A
-   representation transferred via HTTP messages &MUST; be in the
-   appropriate canonical form prior to its transmission except for
-   "text" types, as defined in the next paragraph.
-</t>
-<t>
-   When in canonical form, media subtypes of the "text" type use CRLF as
-   the text line break. HTTP relaxes this requirement and allows the
-   transport of text media with plain CR or LF alone representing a line
-   break when it is done consistently for an entire representation. HTTP
-   applications &MUST; accept CRLF, bare CR, and bare LF as indicating
-   a line break in text media received via HTTP. In
-   addition, if the text is in a charset that does not
-   use octets 13 and 10 for CR and LF respectively, as is the case for
-   some multi-byte charsets, HTTP allows the use of whatever octet
-   sequences are defined by that charset to represent the
-   equivalent of CR and LF for line breaks. This flexibility regarding
-   line breaks applies only to text media in the payload body; a bare CR
-   or LF &MUST-NOT; be substituted for CRLF within any of the HTTP control
-   structures (such as header fields and multipart boundaries).
+   Internet media types are registered with a canonical form in order to be
+   interoperable among systems with varying native encoding formats.
+   Representations selected or transferred via HTTP ought to be in canonical
+   form, for many of the same reasons described by MIME
+   <xref target="RFC2049"/>.
+   However, the performance characteristics of email deployments (i.e., store
+   and forward messages to peers) are significantly different from those
+   common to HTTP and the Web (server-based information services).
+   Furthermore, MIME's constraints for the sake of compatibility with older
+   mail transfer protocols do not apply to HTTP
+   (see <xref target="differences.between.http.and.mime"/>).
+</t>
+<t>
+   MIME's canonical form requires that media subtypes of the "text"
+   type use CRLF as the text line break. HTTP allows the
+   transfer of text media with plain CR or LF alone representing a line
+   break, when such line breaks are consistent for an entire representation.
+   HTTP senders &MAY; generate, and recipients &MUST; be able to parse,
+   line breaks in text media that consist of CRLF, bare CR, or bare LF.
+   In addition, text media in HTTP is not limited to charsets that
+   use octets 13 and 10 for CR and LF, respectively.
+   This flexibility regarding line breaks applies only to text within a
+   representation that has been assigned a "text" media type; it does not
+   apply to "multipart" types or HTTP elements outside the payload body
+   (e.g., header fields).
 </t>
 <t>
    If a representation is encoded with a content-coding, the underlying
-   data &MUST; be in a form defined above prior to being encoded.
+   data ought to be in a form defined above prior to being encoded.
 </t>
 </section>
@@ -441 +447 @@
 </t>
 <t>
-   In general, HTTP treats a multipart message body no differently than
-   any other media type: strictly as payload.  HTTP does not use the
-   multipart boundary as an indicator of message body length.
-   <!-- jre: re-insert removed text pointing to caching? -->
-   In all other respects, an HTTP user agent &SHOULD; follow the same or similar
-   behavior as a MIME user agent would upon receipt of a multipart type.
-   The MIME header fields within each body-part of a multipart message body
-   do not have any significance to HTTP beyond that defined by
-   their MIME semantics.
-</t>
-<t>
-   A recipient &MUST; treat an unrecognized multipart subtype
-   as being equivalent to "multipart/mixed".
-</t>
-<x:note>
-  <t>
-    &Note; The "multipart/form-data" type has been specifically defined
-    for carrying form data suitable for processing via the POST
-    request method, as described in <xref target="RFC2388"/>.
-  </t>
-</x:note>
+   HTTP message framing does not use the multipart boundary as an indicator
+   of message body length, though it might be used by implementations that
+   generate or process the payload. For example, the "multipart/form-data"
+   type is often used for carrying form data in a request, as described in
+   <xref target="RFC2388"/>, and the "multipart/byteranges" type is defined
+   by this specification for use in some <x:ref>206 (Partial Content)</x:ref>
+   responses <xref target="Part5"/>.
+</t>
 </section>
 
@@ -469 +462 @@
 <t>
    The "Content-Type" header field indicates the media type of the
-   representation, which defines both the data format and how that data
-   &SHOULD; be processed by the recipient (within the scope of the request
-   method semantics) after any <x:ref>Content-Encoding</x:ref> is decoded.
-   For responses to the HEAD method, the media type is
-   that which would have been sent had the request been a GET.
+   associated representation: either the representation enclosed in
+   the message payload or the selected representation, as determined by the
+   message semantics.  The indicated media type defines both the data format
+   and how that data is intended to be processed by a recipient, within the
+   scope of the received message semantics, after any content codings
+   indicated by <x:ref>Content-Encoding</x:ref> are decoded.
 </t>
 <figure><artwork type="abnf2616"><iref primary="true" item="Grammar" subitem="Content-Type"/>
@@ -479 +473 @@
 </artwork></figure>
 <t>
-   Media types are defined in <xref target="media.type"/>. An example of the field is
+   Media types are defined in <xref target="media.type"/>. An example of the
+   field is
 </t>
 <figure><artwork type="example">
@@ -584 +579 @@
 <t>
    If the media type includes an inherent encoding, such as a data format
-   that is always compressed, then that encoding would not be restated as 
-   a Content-Encoding even if it happens to be the same algorithm as one
+   that is always compressed, then that encoding would not be restated in 
+   Content-Encoding even if it happens to be the same algorithm as one
    of the content codings.  Such a content coding would only be listed if,
    for some bizarre reason, it is applied a second time to form the
@@ -596 +591 @@
 </t>
 <t>
-   If the content-coding of a representation in a request message is not
-   acceptable to the origin server, the server &SHOULD; respond with a
-   status code of 415 (Unsupported Media Type).
+   An origin server &MAY; respond with a status code of
+   <x:ref>415 (Unsupported Media Type)</x:ref> if a representation in the
+   request message has a content coding that is not acceptable.
 </t>
 </section>
@@ -903 +898 @@
 
 <section title="Content Negotiation" anchor="content.negotiation">
-<t>
-   HTTP responses include a representation which contains information for
-   interpretation, whether by a human user or for further processing.
-   Often, the server has different ways of representing the
-   same information; for example, in different formats, languages,
-   or using different charsets.
-</t>
-<t>
-   HTTP clients and their users might have different or variable
-   capabilities, characteristics or preferences which would influence
-   which representation, among those available from the server,
-   would be best for the server to deliver. For this reason, HTTP
-   provides mechanisms for "content negotiation" &mdash; a process of
-   allowing selection of a representation of a given resource,
-   when more than one is available.
-</t>
-<t>
-   This specification defines two patterns of content negotiation;
+  <x:anchor-alias value="content negotiation"/>
+<t>
+   When responses convey a representation, whether indicating a success or
+   an error, the origin server often has different ways of representing that
+   information; for example, in different formats, languages, or encodings.
+   Likewise, different users or user agents might have differing capabilities,
+   characteristics, or preferences that could influence which representation,
+   among those available, would be best to deliver. For this reason, HTTP
+   provides mechanisms for <x:ref>content negotiation</x:ref>.
+</t>
+<t>
+   This specification defines two patterns of content negotiation that can
+   be made visible within the protocol:
    "proactive", where the server selects the representation based
-   upon the client's stated preferences, and "reactive" negotiation,
-   where the server provides a list of representations for the client to
-   choose from, based upon their metadata. In addition,  there are
-   other patterns: some applications use an "active content" pattern,
-   where the server returns active content which runs on the client
-   and, based on client available parameters, selects additional
-   resources to invoke. "Transparent Content Negotiation" (<xref target="RFC2295"/>)
-   has also been proposed.
-</t>
-<t>
-   These patterns are all widely used, and have trade-offs in applicability
-   and practicality. In particular, when the number of preferences or
-   capabilities to be expressed by a client are large (such as when many
-   different formats are supported by a user agent), proactive
-   negotiation becomes unwieldy, and might not be appropriate. Conversely,
-   when the number of representations to choose from is very large,
-   reactive negotiation might not be appropriate.
-</t>
-<t>
-   Note that, in all cases, the supplier of representations has the
-   responsibility for determining which representations might be
-   considered to be the "same information".
+   upon the user agent's stated preferences, and "reactive" negotiation,
+   where the server provides a list of representations for the user agent to
+   choose from. Other patterns of content negotiation include
+   "conditional content", where the representation consists of multiple
+   parts that are selectively rendered based on user agent parameters, 
+   "active content", where the representation contains a script that
+   makes additional (more specific) requests based on the user agent
+   characteristics, and "Transparent Content Negotiation"
+   (<xref target="RFC2295"/>), where content selection is performed by
+   an intermediary. These patterns are not mutually exclusive, and each has
+   trade-offs in applicability and practicality.
+</t>
+<t>
+   Note that, in all cases, the supplier of representations to the origin
+   server determines which representations might be considered to be the
+   "same information".
 </t>
 
 <section title="Proactive Negotiation" anchor="proactive.negotiation">
-<t>
-   If the selection of the best representation for a response is made by
-   an algorithm located at the server, it is called proactive
-   negotiation. Selection is based on the available representations of
-   the response (the dimensions over which it can vary; e.g., language,
-   content-coding, etc.) and the contents of particular header fields in
-   the request message or on other information pertaining to the request
-   (such as the network address of the client).
+  <x:anchor-alias value="proactive negotiation"/>
+  <x:anchor-alias value="server-driven negotiation"/>
+<t>
+   When content negotiation preferences are sent by the user agent in a
+   request in order to encourage an algorithm located at the server to
+   select the preferred representation, it is called
+   <x:dfn>proactive negotiation</x:dfn>
+   (a.k.a., <x:dfn>server-driven negotiation</x:dfn>). Selection is based on
+   the available representations for a response (the dimensions over which it
+   might vary; e.g., language, content-coding, etc.) compared to various
+   information supplied in the request, including both the explicit
+   negotiation fields of <xref target="request.conneg"/> and implicit
+   characteristics, such as the client's network address or parts of the
+   <x:ref>User-Agent</x:ref> field.
 </t>
 <t>
    Proactive negotiation is advantageous when the algorithm for
    selecting from among the available representations is difficult to
-   describe to the user agent, or when the server desires to send its
-   "best guess" to the client along with the first response (hoping to
+   describe to a user agent, or when the server desires to send its
+   "best guess" to the user agent along with the first response (hoping to
    avoid the round-trip delay of a subsequent request if the "best
    guess" is good enough for the user). In order to improve the server's
-   guess, the user agent &MAY; include request header fields (<x:ref>Accept</x:ref>,
-   <x:ref>Accept-Language</x:ref>, <x:ref>Accept-Encoding</x:ref>, etc.) which describe its
-   preferences for such a response.
-</t>
-<t>
-   Proactive negotiation has disadvantages:
-  <list style="numbers">
+   guess, a user agent &MAY; send request header fields that describe
+   its preferences.
+</t>
+<t>
+   Proactive negotiation has serious disadvantages:
+  <list style="symbols">
     <t>
          It is impossible for the server to accurately determine what
@@ -975 +964 @@
          complete knowledge of both the capabilities of the user agent
          and the intended use for the response (e.g., does the user want
-         to view it on screen or print it on paper?).
+         to view it on screen or print it on paper?);
     </t>
     <t>
@@ -981 +970 @@
          request can be both very inefficient (given that only a small
          percentage of responses have multiple representations) and a
-         potential violation of the user's privacy.
+         potential risk to the user's privacy;
     </t>
     <t>
          It complicates the implementation of an origin server and the
-         algorithms for generating responses to a request.
+         algorithms for generating responses to a request; and,
     </t>
     <t>
-         It might limit a public cache's ability to use the same response
-         for multiple user's requests.
+         It limits the reusability of responses for shared caching.
     </t>
   </list>
 </t>
 <t>
-   Proactive negotiation allows the user agent to specify its preferences,
-   but it cannot expect responses to always honor them. For example, the origin
-   server might not implement proactive negotiation, or it might decide that
-   sending a response that doesn't conform to the user agent's preferences is
-   better than sending a <x:ref>406 (Not Acceptable)</x:ref> response.
-</t>
-<t>
-   HTTP/1.1 includes the following header fields for enabling
-   proactive negotiation through description of user agent
-   capabilities and user preferences: <x:ref>Accept</x:ref>
-   (<xref target="header.accept"/>), <x:ref>Accept-Charset</x:ref>
-   (<xref target="header.accept-charset"/>), <x:ref>Accept-Encoding</x:ref>
-   (<xref target="header.accept-encoding"/>), <x:ref>Accept-Language</x:ref>
-   (<xref target="header.accept-language"/>), and <x:ref>User-Agent</x:ref>
-   (&header-user-agent;).
-   However, an origin server is not limited to these dimensions and &MAY; vary 
-   the response based on any aspect of the request, including aspects
-   of the connection (e.g., IP address) or information within extension
-   header fields not defined by this specification.
-</t>
-<x:note>
-  <t>
-    &Note; In practice, <x:ref>User-Agent</x:ref> based negotiation is fragile,
-    because new clients might not be recognized. 
-  </t>
-</x:note>
-<t>
-   The <x:ref>Vary</x:ref> header field (<xref target="header.vary"/>) can be
-   used to express the parameters the server uses to select a representation
-   that is subject to proactive negotiation.
+   A user agent cannot rely on proactive negotiation preferences being
+   consistently honored, since the origin server might not implement proactive
+   negotiation for the requested resource or might decide that sending a
+   response that doesn't conform to the user agent's preferences is better
+   than sending a <x:ref>406 (Not Acceptable)</x:ref> response.
+</t>
+<t>
+   An origin server &MAY; generate a <x:ref>Vary</x:ref> header field
+   (<xref target="header.vary"/>) in responses that are subject to proactive
+   negotiation to indicate what parameters of request information might
+   be used in its selection algorithm, thereby providing a means for
+   recipients to determine the reusability of that same response for
+   user agents with differing request information.
 </t>
 </section>
 
 <section title="Reactive Negotiation" anchor="reactive.negotiation">
-<t>
-   With reactive negotiation, selection of the best representation
-   for a response is performed by the user agent after receiving an
-   initial response from the origin server. Selection is based on a list
-   of the available representations of the response included within the
-   header fields or body of the initial response, with each
-   representation identified by its own URI. Selection from among the
-   representations can be performed automatically (if the user agent is
-   capable of doing so) or manually by the user selecting from a
-   generated (possibly hypertext) menu.
+  <x:anchor-alias value="reactive negotiation"/>
+  <x:anchor-alias value="agent-driven negotiation"/>
+<t>
+   With <x:dfn>reactive negotiation</x:dfn>
+   (a.k.a., <x:dfn>agent-driven negotiation</x:dfn>), selection of the best
+   representation for a response is performed by the user agent after
+   receiving an initial response from the origin server with a list of
+   alternative resources. If the user agent is not satisfied by the initial
+   response, it can perform a GET request on one or more of the alternative
+   resources, selected based on metadata included in the list, to obtain a
+   different form of representation. Selection of alternatives might be
+   performed automatically by the user agent or manually by the user selecting
+   from a generated (possibly hypertext) menu.
+</t>
+<t>
+   The <x:ref>300 (Multiple Choices)</x:ref> and
+   <x:ref>406 (Not Acceptable)</x:ref> status codes indicate reactive
+   negotiation when the origin server is unwilling or unable to provide a
+   varying response using proactive negotiation.
 </t>
 <t>
@@ -1047 +1027 @@
 </t>
 <t>
-   Reactive negotiation suffers from the disadvantage of needing a
-   second request to obtain the best alternate representation. This
-   second request is only efficient when caching is used. In addition,
-   this specification does not define any mechanism for supporting
-   automatic selection, though it also does not prevent any such
-   mechanism from being developed as an extension and used within
-   HTTP/1.1.
-</t>
-<t>
-   This specification defines the <x:ref>300 (Multiple Choices)</x:ref> and
-   <x:ref>406 (Not Acceptable)</x:ref> status codes for enabling reactive
-   negotiation when the server is unwilling or unable to provide a varying
-   response using proactive negotiation.
+   Reactive negotiation suffers from the disadvantages of transmitting
+   a list of alternatives to the user agent, which degrades user-perceived
+   latency if transmitted in the header section, and needing a second request
+   to obtain an alternate representation. Furthermore, this specification
+   does not define a mechanism for supporting automatic selection, though it
+   does not prevent such a mechanism from being developed as an extension.
 </t>
 </section>
@@ -3324 +3297 @@
    The server is refusing to service the request because the request
    payload is in a format not supported by this request method on the
-   target resource.
+   target resource. The format problem might be due to the request's
+   indicated <x:ref>Content-Type</x:ref> or <x:ref>Content-Encoding</x:ref>,
+   or as a result of inspecting the data directly.
 </t>
 </section>