An HTTP Extension Framework
RFC 2774
Document | Type |
RFC - Experimental
(February 2000; No errata)
Was draft-frystyk-http-extensions (individual)
|
|
---|---|---|---|
Authors | Henrik Nielsen , Paul Leach , Scott Lawrence | ||
Last updated | 2013-03-02 | ||
Stream | Legacy | ||
Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized bibtex | ||
Stream | Legacy state | (None) | |
Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
RFC Editor Note | (None) | ||
IESG | IESG state | RFC 2774 (Experimental) | |
Telechat date | |||
Responsible AD | (None) | ||
Send notices to | (None) |
Network Working Group H. Nielsen Request for Comments: 2774 P. Leach Category: Experimental Microsoft S. Lawrence Agranat Systems February 2000 An HTTP Extension Framework Status of this Memo This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000). All Rights Reserved. IESG Note This document was originally requested for Proposed Standard status. However, due to mixed reviews during Last Call and within the HTTP working group, it is being published as an Experimental document. This is not necessarily an indication of technical flaws in the document; rather, there is a more general concern about whether this document actually represents community consensus regarding the evolution of HTTP. Additional study and discussion are needed before this can be determined. Note also that when HTTP is used as a substrate for other protocols, it may be necessary or appropriate to use other extension mechanisms in addition to, or instead of, those defined here. This document should therefore not be taken as a blueprint for adding extensions to HTTP, but it defines mechanisms that might be useful in such circumstances. Nielsen, et al. Experimental [Page 1] RFC 2774 An HTTP Extension Framework February 2000 Abstract A wide range of applications have proposed various extensions of the HTTP protocol. Current efforts span an enormous range, including distributed authoring, collaboration, printing, and remote procedure call mechanisms. These HTTP extensions are not coordinated, since there has been no standard framework for defining extensions and thus, separation of concerns. This document describes a generic extension mechanism for HTTP, which is designed to address the tension between private agreement and public specification and to accommodate extension of applications using HTTP clients, servers, and proxies. The proposal associates each extension with a globally unique identifier, and uses HTTP header fields to carry the extension identifier and related information between the parties involved in the extended communication. Table of Contents 1. Introduction ...............................................3 2. Notational Conventions .....................................3 3. Extension Declarations .....................................4 3.1 Header Field Prefixes ...................................5 4. Extension Header Fields ....................................6 4.1 End-to-End Extensions ...................................7 4.2 Hop-by-Hop Extensions ...................................7 4.3 Extension Response Header Fields ........................8 5. Mandatory HTTP Requests ....................................8 5.1 Fulfilling a Mandatory Request .........................10 6. Mandatory HTTP Responses ..................................11 7. 510 Not Extended ..........................................11 8. Publishing an Extension ...................................11 9. Caching Considerations ....................................12 10. Security Considerations ...................................13 11. References ................................................13 12. Acknowledgements ..........................................14 13. Authors' Addresses ........................................14 14. Summary of Protocol Interactions ..........................15 15. Examples ..................................................16 15.1 User Agent to Origin Server ............................16 15.2 User Agent to Origin Server via HTTP/1.1 Proxy .........17 15.3 User Agent to Origin Server via HTTP/1.0 Proxy .........18 Full Copyright Statement ......................................20 Nielsen, et al. Experimental [Page 2] RFC 2774 An HTTP Extension Framework February 2000 1. Introduction This proposal is designed to address the tension between private agreement and public specification; and to accommodate dynamic extension of HTTP clients and servers by software components. The kind of extensions capable of being introduced range from: o extending a single HTTP message; o introducing new encodings; o initiating HTTP-derived protocols for new applications; to...Show full document text