Subject: Re: a new CNRP URI document....

From: Nicolas Popp <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2000 23:06:21 -0700

In order to finalize the proposal, let me suggest:

1) Let us keep the path as a convenience for the required implementation
(HTTP)

2) No need to reserve a port for CNRP since CNRP implementations rely on
existing transport protocols.  If the port is unspecified, CNRP uses the
transport protocol's default port (e.g. port 80 for HTTP).

-Nico

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Mealling
To: [email-masked]
Sent: 4/21/00 9:52 AM
Subject: a new CNRP URI document....

Hi folx,
  Here's a new copy of the CNRP URI document. Its been almost 100%
re-written
so please look at it completely. The open issues as of now are:

1) what does 'path' mean and do we really need it
2) do we reserve a well known port number?

Enjoy!

-MM

Network Working Group                                        M. Mealling
Internet-Draft                                                       NSI
Expires: May 31, 2000                                      December 1999

         A URI Scheme for the Common  Name Resolution Protocol
                         draft-ietf-cnrp-uri-01

Status of this Memo

   This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
   all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that
   other groups may also distribute working documents as
   Internet-Drafts.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six
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   at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   To view the entire list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories, see
   http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.

   This Internet-Draft will expire on May 31, 2000.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999). All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This document defines a URI scheme to be used with the Common Name
   Resolution Protocol. Specifically it lays out the syntactic
   components and how those components are used by URI Resolution to
   find the available transports for a CNRP service. Care should be
   taken with several of the URI components because, while they may
   look like components found in other URI schemes, they often do not
   act like them. The CNRP scheme has more in common with the location
   independent "news" scheme than any other URI scheme.

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Table of Contents

   1.    Goals  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2.    Terminology  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   3.    Syntax Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   3.1   General Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   3.2   ABNF Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   3.3   Special Cases and Default Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   3.3.1 If server is NULL then server=localhost  . . . . . . . . . .  5
   3.3.2 No Common-Name and no ID Is An Error . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   3.3.3 Encoding Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   4.    Transport Independence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
   5.    Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  8
         References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
         Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
   A.    Registration Template  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
         Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

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1. Goals

   The two goals of the CNRP[3]URI[1] are to identify both a specific
   common-name record at a specific server and to identify a possibly
   dynamic query or entry point into the query process. Since CNRP
   requires that the ID be a core query term, these two cases can be
   generalized down to simply specifying a query by only specifying the
   ID of the item in the URI.

   On first glance it would seem a simple enough excercize to
   canonicalize the XML encoded query and then insert it into the query
   portion of the URL. The problem here is that, due to the encoding
   rules, any remotely complex query will quickly blow out the URI
   length limitations. The suggested solution is to provide a
   simplified query syntax that is a subset of what is available via
   the XML.

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2. Terminology

      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[4].

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3. Syntax Rules

3.1 General Syntax

   The CNRP URI comes in two forms:

   cnrp://[<host>][/<path>]?[<common-name>]*[;<attribute>=<value>]

   and

   cnrp:<common-name>*[;<attribute>=<value>]

3.2 ABNF Grammar

   The full ABNF[2] (certain values are included by reference from
   RFC2396[1]):

   cnrp-uri = "cnrp:" (form1 / form2)
   form1    = "//" [server] "/" [path] "?" [ common-name ] [ id-req ]
*avpair
   form2         = common-name *avpair

   id-req        = ";id=" value
   avpair        = ";" attribute "=" value

   server        = // as specified in RFC2396
   path          = path_segments
   path_segments = // as specified in RFC2396

   common-name     = *(unreserved | escaped)
   attribute       = *(unreserved | escaped)
   value           = *(unreserved | escaped)

   unreserved      = // as specified in RFC2396

   escaped       = "%" hex hex
   hex           = "0" | "1" | "2" | "3" | "4" | "5" | "6" | "7" |
                   "8" | "9" | "A" | "B" | "C" | "D" | "E" | "F" |
                   "a" | "b" | "c" | "d" | "e" | "f"

3.3 Special Cases and Default Values

3.3.1 If server is NULL then server=localhost

   If the 'server' element has no value then its value MUST be assumed
   to be "localhost:##".

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3.3.2 No Common-Name and no ID Is An Error

   Since both 'common-name' and 'id-req' are optional, there is the
   case a CNRP URI can be valid according to the ABNF but have no
   common-name or ID. This case makes no sense to the protocol and is
   therefore an error.

3.3.3 Encoding Rules

   In the case where a given character in the common-name, its
   parameters, or its values is outside the allowed set of characters,
   those value MUST be encoded as a sequence of one to six octets using
   the UTF-8 Unicode encoding scheme[5], and the encoding of each of
   those octets MUST be a "%" followed by two characters from the <hex>
   character set above. The two characters give the hexadecimal
   representation of that octet.

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4. Transport Independence

   As stated in the CNRP protocol specification[3], CNRP is allowed to
   be expressed over mutliple transport protocols with HTTP being
   mandatory to implement. In the case where a client attempts to
   resolve a CNRP URI and it knows nothing about the service being
   referenced in that URI, then it SHOULD use HTTP.

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5. Examples

   cnrp://cnrp.foo.com/cgi-bin/CNRP.pl?Mercedes%20Benz;geography=US-ga
      This example shows a query for the common-name "Mercedes Benz" in
      the geographic area "US-ga" which should be sent to the server
      found at cnrp.foo.com with the path "/cgi-bin/CNRP.pl".

   cnrp://cnrp.w3.org/?Martin%20J.%20D%C3%BCrst This example includes a
      UTF-8 character encoded using hex escaping. The value encoded is
      a u-umlaut (a 'u' with two dots over it). This simple query is
      sent to a server found at cnrp.w3.org with no parameters

   cnrp://cnrp.foo.com/cgi-bin/CNRP.pl?id=5432345 Here only an id is
      given which means that his example points directly at a
      particular common-name record on a particular server. This
      example would probably be found in a link on a web page of some
      type.

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References

   [1]  Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R.T. and L. Masinter, "Uniform
        Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax", RFC 2396, August
        1998.

   [2]  Crocker, D., "Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: ABNF",
        RFC 2234, November 1997.

   [3]  Moseley, M., Mealling, M. and N. Popp, "CNRP PROTOCOL
        SPECIFICATION", Internet-Draft draft-ietf-cnrp-protocol-02,
        February 2000.

   [4]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
        Levels", RFC 2119, BCP 14, March 1997.

   [5]  The Unicode Consortium, "The Unicode Standard, Version 2.0:
        Appendix A.2", ISBN 0-201-48345-9, January 1988.

Author's Address

   Michael Mealling
   Network Solutions, Inc.

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Appendix A. Registration Template

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Full Copyright Statement

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999). All Rights Reserved.

   This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
   others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
   or assist in its implmentation may be prepared, copied, published
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   kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph
   are included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
   document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
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   The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
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   This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
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   TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
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Acknowledgement

   Funding for the RFC editor function is currently provided by the
   Internet Society.

Mealling                  Expires May 31, 2000                 [Page 11]

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